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hbyrde36 · 8 months

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Chapter 9!

Steve Harrington: Vampire Hunter

Clandestine meetings at the Waffle House

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Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

Steve merged onto the highway at the first possible opportunity. It served the dual purpose of getting them as far the fuck away from that cemetery as possible, while also getting them to their meeting on time.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to stay back and try to kill as many of those things as we could. You’re usually more worried about leaving innocent bystanders in the line of fire and all that.”

“Well for one thing, Brenner is controlling them somehow, so I don't think they’ll go too far without orders. Alsooo…” Steve trailed off as he dialed a number on his cell, allowing the call to connect to the car since he was the one driving.

“Preternatural investigations hotline, how can I help you?” An overly perky voice answered when the call connected.

“Hi, I'd like to report a pack of rabid ghouls at Thatcher’s cemetery.”

“Oh my, that is serious. Can you give me your name and a few details, sir?”

“Sorry, I might lose you, I'm about to go through a tunnel and..”

Click.

Nancy snorted. “You think the PD will be able to handle all that?”

Steve offered her a half shrug. “Hopper knows what he’s doing. Maybe if we’d have had a flamethrower or something we could have made a dent in their numbers, but otherwise they would have overwhelmed us in no time.”

Within 15 minutes they were pulling up to park in front of the Waffle House. Steve hadn’t really thought about it at the time, but the wide panoramic windows of this place left the diners inside kind of exposed, especially at night. He supposed he’d have to trust that if the wererat king was comfortable enough to suggest this location to meet, he must have thought it was safe.

The bell above the door dinged as they entered the restaurant, and Steve quickly scanned the occupied tables for a familiar face, realizing a little too late that he had no idea what Gareth looked like in human form.

He gently coaxed a little bit of his power to the surface of his mind. He didn’t really know what he was doing when he tried stuff like this. He was comfortable enough with raising the dead, obviously, and he knew he had a little immunity from vampire shit even before Eddie got his hooks in, but he also knew deep down that he had other abilities too, one’s he mostly ignored, and he could probably sense the wereanimal’s energy if he tried.

Steve just…didn’t love that part of himself. It all felt a little too woo-woo to him, unreliable, intangible. He preferred to work in the physical world. You see a vampire, you kill it. Shotgun, silver blades, stake and hammer, you can feel what you're doing with your bare hands, and see if with your own eyes. He might have to start getting used to more of the mystical stuff though, because the way things were going in his life, he would need all the leg-up he could get.

The magic flared to life, or that’s how he imagined it in his mind's eye, like a flame. He immediately sensed the presence of two supernatural beings in the corner of the room. Unfortunately, he sensed them a little too strongly, likely due to the boost he got from his link to Eddie, and it threw him quite literally off balance. Nancy steadied him with a strong grip to his upper arm, and he smiled at her inbashful apology.

Every eye in the place was on them then, and Steve cursed himself for not practicing more. If he lived through this he’d have to find a teacher or something. Maybe Wayne would be able to help, of course that would mean being willing to explain about the whole human servant business. A problem for another day.

The two boys in the corner were looking right at him. Both had short to medium length brown hair, and slightly mischievous eyes, and yea they were definitely adults in the technical sense, but they reminded Steve too much of the kids he used to babysit for him to call them men in his own head.

Steve tilted a nod in their direction and moved towards the table, knowing Nancy would follow.

On their approach, the taller of the two boys stood, extending a hand to each of them in turn. “I’ll spare us all the embarrassment of you trying to guess, and just tell you that I’m Gareth. I’m aware that you’ve only met me in rat form. This is my partner, Will.”

The other boy, Will, offered them each a small shy smile and a wave, while he kept himself tucked tightly into his king’s side.

“This is Nancy, she’s working with me on this particular..project.”

Gareth waved them to the chairs on the other side of the table as he took his own seat. Will, in an overly formal gesture considering they were in a hygienically questionable 24-hour diner, waited for everyone else to be seated before taking his own chair. It reminded Steve that Gareth was not just the leader of the wererats, he was their king, and maybe that distinction meant something more than he knew.

Before they could get down to business, a server came by to ask if they were ready to order. Steve wasn’t sure if this would be that kind of a meeting, but when Gareth and Will each ordered a coffee and a meal, he and Nancy followed suit, neither having eaten all day. That was the moment Steve realized he didn’t feel the ravenous hunger that had been plaguing him recently. Was Eddie not pulling energy from him anymore? Had something happened to him? No, that didn’t feel right. Steve got the sense that he would know, somehow, if Eddie was dead. Maybe the vampire finally felt guilty about the whole thing. It didn’t matter, Steve reminded himself, Eddie was still a bad guy even if he felt bad for what he’d done.

When the waitress finally walked away, Gareth asked, “So, what is it you think I can do for you, Harrington?”

“I was hoping to convince you to lead us into whatever secret passageway you used to enter that basement room where you found me under the corroded coffin.”

“Not to be too blunt, but why would I do that? What's in it for us?” Gareth said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table.

“You hate that Billy has power over you, right?

The rat king nodded.

“Show us the way in, and we’ll take care of that little problem for you.” Steve didn’t know Gareth that well, but he knew what it felt like for someone to have power over you, and he was willing to bet that the wererats would do anything to get rid of the master of the city.

Gareth tilted his head side to side, making a little show out of considering his offer. “You already know where he is. Just get in yourselves.”

“We can’t just waltz in the front door. Even in broad daylight, especially in the daylight, Billy will have guards there. We’d be killed on sight.”

“Hmm, true enough. How do I know I can trust you? If you fail, and he finds out we helped, me and my people will be in an even worse position than we are now.”

The waitress appeared, balancing a tray of coffee mugs and forcing them to put their conversation on hold. Steve smiled at the woman gratefully and sipped at his cup. He’d been tired enough on his own after waking from his too short nap, and his fatigue had only gotten worse with the fading adrenaline from the fight with Brenner’s ghouls.

Nancy took the opportunity to speak up when their table was left alone again. “I know you don’t know me, and you barely know Steve, but this is what we do, and we’re damn good at it. When I say I can promise you we will end the master of the city, I mean it.”

Gareth subtly sniffed at the air as he looked her over, considering.

“I can only get you in there, we can’t help any more than that. I can keep the small rats and my people from coming to Billy’s aid for a while, but we wouldn’t be able to fight him beside you. His pull on our kind is too strong.”

“That's no problem.” Steve was quick to comment. “Just sneak us in and we’ll do the rest.”

“Okay. I'll do it.” Gareth agreed.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Steve. There's a part of me that truly thinks I'll be sending you to your deaths. If you survive this, I'll be shocked.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence there, Gare.”

The rat king blinked at Steve for a moment, and then burst out laughing. “When do you want to go in?” He asked.

“Tomorrow, after sunrise” He didn’t want to waste any more time.

Gareth raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting them to want to get to it so quickly. “I like you, Harrington, I hope you don’t die.”

Their food arrived shortly after they finished making arrangements to meet in the city at dawn. As it so often does, the act of sharing a meal let the small group relax around each other a bit more than they might have otherwise. The only exception was Nancy, who remained quiet throughout. It didn’t surprise Steve in the least, she was one of the most private people he knew, and for good reason, though he was sure she was listening intently to every word the others shared.

Gareth told the story of how he and the younger boy met. He had just won a fight against a challenger to his crown, and Joyce, Will’s mom, was the nurse who patched him up. Luckily, Will had taken his older brother’s place in assisting her that day. The two boys took one look at each other and the rest was history.

Steve didn’t have much he was willing to share by way of a personal life, but he happily told a few stories about his years babysitting back in his hometown, finally letting slip that Gareth and Will reminded him of his young charges, a fact that made even the shy boy laugh.

“Not to give too many of our secrets away, but we’re older than we look.” Gareth said.

Steve couldn't help but to tease them. “Oh I'm sorry. Here I was thinking you were a young spry 20 year old. What is it then, a decrepit 24, 25?”

“I’m only 35” Will said with a little smirk. “But,my king is…” Before the boy could finish, Gareth slapped a hand over his mouth.

“You know it’s rude to share a man’s age!” He gasped with exaggerated offense.

Steve gaped at them. “You can’t be serious.”

Jesus, he was younger than both of them. He tried to wrap his head around that fact as Gareth chuckled. “A little tip for you, Harrington, wereanimals age slower than humans. Don’t underestimate one of us just because we look young.”

“Duly noted.”

When all was said and done, Steve and Nancy decided to go back to her hotel in the city to get some rest before the morning, agreeing that it was the safer option than Steve's house with Brenner still on the loose.

Her room housed only a single king bed, which would have been awkward with any of Steve’s other exes. The fact that it wasn’t was a testament to how nonexistent romantic feelings were between the two of them. Steve enjoyed his first dreamless sleep in far too long, and woke rested and refreshed. If he also rose with a vague sense of disappointment, he chose to just push that feeling way, way down.

The meeting place wound up being, more specifically, behind a dumpster in an alley next to a restaurant, which was fitting, and sort of hilarious, Steve thought, considering they were about to be led underground by giant rats.

Gareth and Will were there, which surprised Steve. He had assumed the king would put some lackey’s on the job. He was further surprised when the middle aged woman who joined them turned out to be Joyce. Steve took an instant liking to her, she was very friendly and simply exuded kindness.

She toted along a backpack with her that, when he saw the first aid symbol on the outside, Steve realized must hold medical supplies. The wererats were clearly planning on him and Nancy getting hurt today, at the very least. He decided to view the gesture in a glass-half-full kinda way. If they were planning on administering medical attention, that must mean they think he had a chance, right? No point in bandaging a dead man, after all.

There was one more addition to their group, an older boy named Jonathan who quickly identified himself as Will’s older brother. It seemed this was a family affair.

All present and accounted for, and heavily armed in the case of Steve and Nancy, Gareth led the way down through the cellar doors and into the basement of the building. From there, they entered the city’s sewer system through a grate near the floor. Steve grimaced as they sloshed through the foul liquid in the dark and tried very hard not to think about how gross it all was.

Now that they were in the tunnels, Gareth, Will, and Jonathan all transformed into their rat forms, only Joyce remaining human. Their senses were stronger this way, that much Steve knew, and it would be helpful for getting the group where they needed to go.

It didn’t take as long as Steve expected to reach their destination, only about an hour or so. The trip could have been made quicker if they’d been willing to run, but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement amongst the group to try and splash as little as possible, for obvious reasons.

Gareth approached an opening, not unlike the one they had used to gain access from the other building, and waved Steve and Nancy closer.

“The Corroded Coffin’s basement is through there. We’ll wait down here in the tunnels until dark. If you’re not out by then, I'll assume you failed. If you do manage to kill Billy, I'll know, and we’ll come out to help you if we can.”

Steve nodded at him and yanked on the grate, it was loosened just like the other one. The bars were meant to be welded in place, but someone had come along and cut it free. It could be propped up to give the illusion, but pulled away easily.

He went through first, not knowing if the room would be occupied, though Nancy tried to pull rank as the better shot. The opening was small and close to the floor, and they had to all but crawl to get through.

On the other side, Steve stood up and started across the room, coming to an abrupt stop as he stared at a point on the wall.

“What is it?” Nancy asked, hackles up.

“This is where Chrissy died, chained to the wall like an animal.” Steve’s voice broke.

Nancy clenched her jaw. “I’m sorry, Steve, really I am, but we can’t afford for you to be distracted right now.”

It would’ve been easy to get mad at her, in fact he wanted to. Anything to stave off the tidal wave of sadness and guilt that was building up inside of him for failing to save the girl.

But Nancy was right, and there was no reason to take it out on her. He did his best to push it all deep, deep down, to be dealt with at a later date. He felt like he’d been doing a lot of that lately, and he wasn’t looking forward to the day when he finally had to unpack it all.

“Sorry. I’m good now. Let’s go.”

Steve took the lead again, quietly tiptoeing up the stairs and out to the hall. Luckily, the door wasn’t locked. They would have had to shoot the handle off otherwise, he realized, and that would have entirely defeated the purpose of the sneaky entrance.

He peeked around the corner, shocked to find the immediate area deserted. The vampires would be asleep for the day, but still, he had expected someone to be lurking. Heather at the very least should have been around here somewhere. She was Billy's servant after all, and as a technical human she wasn’t a slave to the sun like he was.

The pair took their time traversing the halls and checking doors until they finally found the coffin room. Each box sat on a little stone dais to keep it up off the floor. They were all different, some larger, some smaller. A few were made of natural wood, stained and adorned with cheap brass fittings. Others were painted and polished to a high shine, more like the modern one’s Steve was accustomed to seeing.

They went for the closest box first. Nancy covered him with her shotgun as Steve opened the lid. He didn’t know this vampire’s name, but recognized him as Chrissy’s overly enthusiastic dance partner from that first night at the club, the one who had looked so perturbed when Steve evaded his mind tricks. He was also present for the debacle in the small graveyard the night of the freak party, and was definitely on Billy’s side of things.

Steve drew a long silver knife from its sheath and readied himself to plunge it into the thing’s chest. That, and a few twists of the blade would shred his heart. A shotgun would be easier, but it would also be messy and loud. He’d have to cut the head off at some point anyway, so the knife would be getting used tonight one way or another.

Nancy stopped him with a hand on his elbow, before he could strike. “I might have an easier way. Have you ever used silver nitrate?”

Steve hesitated, lips pursed.“Like, from the movie Blade? Does that work?”

Nancy rolled her eyes, pulling a small vial of silver liquid and a syringe out of an inner pants pocket to show him. “Yea it works. Any idea how old this one is?”

“No more than a hundred.”

“Better go for a full dose then.” She filled the syringe, leaning over the body as Steve covered her with his own handgun full of silver bullets.

Nancy unceremoniously jammed the needle into the vampire’s neck and depressed the plunger. The body began to twitch, startling Steve, but it fell limp again after only a minute or two of spasms. He stared at it, waiting for some sign that the creature was really dead. When it didn’t seem like anything else was going to occur, he finally took his eyes off of the body to look at Nancy.

“Is that it?” He asked, sounding more than a little disappointed.

“Pretty much, yeah. Why, what did you think was going to happen?”

“I don’t know, just, something more than that I guess?”

Nancy crossed her arms over her chest. “You were expecting him to blow up, weren’t you.”

“I absolutely was expecting that. Yes.” Steve grinned.

She shook her head but smiled back at him. “You’re an idiot, Steve Harrington.”

“Maybe, but I'm still cutting his head off before we leave here. I’m not taking any chances.”

“Suit yourself.” She shrugged.

The next coffin they checked was empty. It probably belonged to one of the murdered vamps, Tommy maybe, or at least that’s what Steve told himself. Surely it was too early in the day for any of them to be awake

The next was similarly unoccupied, and then they found Neil.

Again Nancy had pointed her gun at the casket while Steve raised the top. He curled his lip in a snarl when he laid eyes on the monster’s face. Not only had this piece of shit bespelled and threatened one of Steve's friends, but he bore half of the responsibility for Chrissy’s death. He almost regretted doing it like this, when the vampire was all but helpless. A real, god's honest fight would be much more satisfying to his craving for revenge, but it would also be needlessly risky.

This time, it was Steve who loaded up the syringe. Nancy had advised that at Neil’s age they should do two full doses of the liquid silver just to be safe. Steve stuck the needle deep in his neck, quickly administering the first shot, anxious to refill it. Before he could so much as pull the needle back out, however, Neil sat up, eyes still closed as if he were half asleep. The move would have sent Steve sprawling to the ground, but as the vampire surged upwards, he gripped Steve by the throat, lifting him clear off the ground.

His ears started to ring as he fought to think through the panic of having his airway cut off. He grabbed on to the vampire's wrist with both hands, pulling to take as much of the pressure off his neck as he could. He kicked his feet, trying desperately to dislodge himself, but Neil’s grip was like a vice, and it became clear that Steve wouldn’t be able to get free unless he chose to let go, or died. Fuck.

Nancy appeared suddenly on Steve’s other side, the only vantage point in the room that would give her a clear shot without risking him. She aimed, and fired nearly point-blank into the side of Neil’s head. Red fluid splattered across Steve's face, and immediately the hand that had been holding him up let go. He crumpled to the ground, sucking in greedy gulps of air as he wiped the blood from his eyes.

So distracted by his own situation, Steve didn’t realize for a moment that Neil hadn’t entirely gone down. His head was a red mess of meat and bone, but his body hadn’t quite gotten the memo yet, and it was grappling hard with Nancy as she tried to gain enough distance from the thing to get another shot off.

Though he was still a little lightheaded, with spots dancing across the edges of his vision, Steve waded into the fray, carefully slicing through the air with his blade to capture the thing’s attention. He got a few good cuts in and it was distraction enough to give Nancy time to line up her shot.

“Steve, move!” She howled.

He didn't need to be told twice. Steve threw himself down and to the side. He even put his hands over his head for good measure. Nancy’s second shot rang out, deafeningly loud in the enclosed space. He hadn’t even registered the sound of it the first time. Steve shuddered, realizing how close he must have been to passing out to have not noticed.

Her bullet hit home, going straight through Neil's chest and out the other side, leaving an impressive exit wound. Finally, mercifully, the body fell limp to the ground. He was dead, permanently this time.

Nancy pulled Steve to his feet, scanning him top to bottom.

“How are you holding up?” She asked.

“I’m fine.” He said, voice rough from the damage to his throat.

She stared at him silently, unblinking.

He sighed. “It looks worse than it is. Come on, let's get this done.”

Steve limped to the front of the room, where the final three coffins were placed. The one in the center, a glossy black lacquer number with gilded handles, had to belong to Billy. Not only because it was the fanciest of the bunch, but because the two that flanked it were wrapped in heavy chains with small crosses dangling from their links like some sort of twisted charm bracelet.

He could tell Nancy was considering blasting a hole through the side of the box with her shotgun, anything to avoid another jack-in-the-box style surprise, but even if she did it would never be a killing blow.

Steve approached the coffin, holding his breath as he lifted the lid. He wished he could say he was surprised when he looked down to find nothing but white satin, but he wasn’t.

“Looking for me?” Billy drawled from the back of the room.

He and Nancy turned towards the voice at the same time, both lifting their weapons to eye level on instinct.

“You didn’t really think at my age that I needed to sleep off the entire day still, did you?”

Steve gulped audibly. Up until he saw Neil’s form move in the daylight hours just a few moments ago, he had thought that.

“Aw, it seems you still have so much to learn, Harrington. Why don’t you put those silly little guns down and we can work this out.”

“There’s nothing to work out, Billy.” Steve said through gritted teeth.

“Sure there is! Look, I know I killed your girl. I would say I was sorry about that, but I don't like to make a habit out of lying. As far as I see it, now that you’ve killed my father, we’re even! Trust me, I don't even mind that you took him out. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself some day.”

“Don’t move.” A female voice said suddenly to Steve's right.

He glanced over to find the human servant, Heather, standing behind Nancy, holding an old fashioned pistol to the back of her head. Her arms were already in the air, and Heather snatched the shotgun from her with her free hand, tossing it to the floor.

“You better drop your weapon too, Steve-O, wouldn’t want Heather to get nervous and shoot your pretty friend there by accident.”

Steve glared at him, but dropped the gun and the knife he was holding to the ground. He had other knives on him, they could have those.

Brenner appeared in the doorway behind Billy. He didn’t look particularly happy to be there.

“Oh good, you’re finally here.” Billy snarked, not turning around but still clearly addressing the man. ”Be a good boy and help Heather check these two over for more weapons.”

Brenner scowled at the back of Billy’s head, but quickly crossed the room to do as he was told.

Heather started to frisk Nancy, while Brenner approached Steve.

“Does he know what you’ve done?” Steve whispered to the older man.

“Shut up.” Brenner hissed as he kicked Steve’s legs apart, doing a much more thorough job at searching him than Steve had been expecting.

He couldn’t be sure if Heather had found all of Nancy’s goodies, but unfortunately, Brenner had found all of his. Even the small knife that he liked to keep tucked in his boot was now living in the other man’s pocket.

“Would you like to see what we’ve been up to while you two were busy sneaking around and killing my father?” Billy asked.

Steve didn’t respond, it wasn’t like he had an actual choice in the matter, so why entertain the vampire with an answer?

“You really know how to take all the fun out of things, you know that pretty boy?” Billy huffed. “Escort them to the basement.” He commanded the two lackeys.

Steve and Nancy found themselves being roughly pushed out into the hall, and he didn’t need three guesses to know where they were going. Back to the same fucking torture chamber of a basement room he was becoming all too familiar with. He wondered if they ever called it a dungeon, it was a fitting name for the awful space.

The small group paraded down the stairs and stood in an awkward half circle.

“Come on out, sweetheart.” Billy called towards one of the dark corners.

There was a soft shuffling sound as something moved in the darkness. Slowly, a small figure with a petite frame and strawberry-blonde hair was revealed under the single dim light that hung in the middle of the room.

Steve sucked in a sharp breath. He should have seen this coming, in hindsight, but this was cruelty beyond his imagining, even for someone like Billy.

“Chrissy?” His voice broke as he whispered her name, before rounding on Billy and shouting nearly right in his face. “Why?! Why would you do this?!”

The motherfucker smiled like a Cheshire cat. “To torture you mostly, why, is it working?”

Steve raged inside. He wanted to lay Billy out, to spit in his smug face, but he had no wish to set the guy off. Had it only been his own life on the line, he might have risked it, but with Nancy here he had to hold it in. He forced himself to take several steps back.

Billy laughed, so obviously amused with Steve’s struggle to control himself. “Actually, to be honest, I had Martin raise her before you arrived. As an animator I'm sure you’re aware that murdered zombies have a tendency to pursue their murderers, and since Neil landed the final killing blow… let’s just say, I thought I'd give Chrissy here a fair shot to get back at him while he was asleep for the day. Your showing up to witness her impromptu resurrection was just a happy accident.”

Steve gaped, somehow still surprised at the vampire's level of depravity. “He would have destroyed her all over again. That’s…sick”

Billy shrugged. “When you’ve been alive as long as I have, you have to find new and interesting ways to entertain yourself.”

The vampire’s mouth twisted into a predatory grin as his eyes began to glow with blue fire. Steve averted his gaze.

“Speaking of which.” Billy continued. ”Drop to your knees and crawl to me, human.”

Steve stared at the floor and braced himself for the pull of Billy’s power, though knew they had cleaned the bite thoroughly. He felt nothing.

The vampire growled, and Steve chanced a look at his face. He looked pissed.

“What have you done?”

“Just a little routine cleaning with holy water.

”I suppose next time I'll just have to keep you with me to stop that from happening. Or, if you prefer, I could make you into one of us. You could take Tommy's place. It’s really the least you can do since your lack of finding the vampire murderer led directly to his death.”

Steve shot a sideways glance at Brenner’s nervous face before he spoke. “I’d die first”

“One way or another that’s where we’re headed, baby boy.”

Chrissy, who’d been hovering near the edge of the group, mostly looking around in confusion, seemed to finally realize where she was. Steve heard her gasp as she ran her hands lightly over a spot on the wall. He watched in agony as she clawed at her throat, clearly remembering the moment it had been ripped apart, and screamed. She collapsed to the floor sobbing.

Steve tried to lunge for her, desperate to offer what little comfort he could to this echo of his fallen friend, but Heather grasped him by the back of his shirt, shoving her little pistol roughly into his ribs.

“Do you really think i’ll just stand here and watch you torture that poor girl even in death?” Steve snapped, whirling on Heather with a vicious snarl. “You want to shoot me for it? Fucking shoot me then!”

Billy stepped between them, suddenly the picture of cool, calm, and collected. “Let’s just everyone calm down. Why don’t we play a little game.”

“Why?” Steve spat. He didn’t understand why they didn’t just kill him already. Billy knew he was never going to join him willingly. Was he really this enamored with playing with his food?

“Maybe i just want to see how good you really are, besides, if you win i’ll let you comfort poor Chrissy there.”

What other choice did he have?

“Fine.”

Steve was given back one of his knives and told he was to fight Heather, who had apparently trained in many forms of combat over her years with Billy. The rules were simple. If she killed him, she won. If Steve drew her blood, he won. It almost sounded like a fair fight.

Heather looked like a small, unassuming young girl, but Steve knew now more than ever just how much looks could be deceiving, so he didn't let his guard down one bit as they circled each other.

He was pretty good with a blade, Wayne had insisted on training him heavily with them even more so than firearms, because ‘knives can’t run out of bullets, son’.

Still, Heather was better, and she managed several shallow cuts on both of his arms before he could get anywhere near her. She was fast, and she was toying with him. He needed to find a way to gain the upper hand here, and quickly.

“I know who the murderer is.” Steve said casually, never once taking his eyes off his opponent. For a moment, all movement in the basement ceased except for him, and Heather.

“What did you say?” Billy hissed.

“I know who killed your vampires.” Steve reiterated.

Martin spoke over him. “Don’t listen to him, surely he’ll say anything now to save his own skin.”

“Quiet, Martin. Tell me who it is, Harrington, or I'll kill your partner.”

Steve risked a glance at Nancy then, only to find that Billy had stepped up behind her, her hair fisted tightly in his hand.

He opened his mouth to answer, but Brenner interrupted shouting, “NO!” As he pulled Steve’s own handgun out of his suit pocket and aimed.

The room fell into chaos. Billy dropped his grip on Nancy and appeared in front of Brenner like magic. The man had no time to react before the vampire reached up with both hands and snapped his neck.

Heather had finally looked away to watch her master work, and Steve used the opportunity to step into her, and plunged his blade deep in her chest. She wasn’t a vampire, but she was tied to one, and Steve was betting she could be killed like one too.

She stared at him wide-eyed, as she stumbled and fell to the ground. Steve plucked the weapon she’d been using out of her hand and slid it in Nancy’s direction. She caught it, and they both turned in tandem to face Billy.

The vampire had dropped to his knees, weakened as his human servant lay dying. It was everything Steve had hoped for. He’d been told that a human servant would live as long as their vampire master. Which, if you thought about it, translated to, if their master died - so did they. Steve had thought if that was the case, then maybe the reverse could also be true.

Billy tried to gather his power, Steve could feel it in the air, but he was too weak for tricks. Nancy made a go for him first, lunging and slashing but unable to make contact before Billy grabbed her arm, spinning her hard into the nearest wall. Steve came at him from behind as he threw her, aiming as best he could for the man’s heart. The knife penetrated his body, but he must have missed the mark.

Billy heaved himself off of Steve's blade with a grunt, only to be met with Nancy once again in front of him, having recovered quickly from ricocheting off the wall. She jammed her blade down into his chest and he tipped sideways to the floor. Nancy remained above him, holding the knife in place while Steve scrambled for his gun where it had fallen out of Brenner’s hands.

He leveled the weapon at Billy’s head.

“Nance!”

It’s all he had to say. She pushed with her feet, scooting back on her butt to get some distance from the half-dead vampire.

Steve screamed as he shot round after round into Billy’s head until the gun clicked empty, and Nancy had to force it out of his hand. He’d lost time somewhere, he hadn’t seen her get up, let alone approach him.

He blinked at her, and watched as she knelt by Heather's unmoving body to check for a pulse.

“She’s dead.” Nancy said simply.

The vampire’s body was similarly still. His head was utterly destroyed and Nancy’s knife was still sticking up out of his chest. Steve would want to burn the body to make sure, just as a precaution, but it seemed Billy’s reign of terror was finally over.

Steve made his way slowly over to where Chrissy still cowered in the corner, not wanting to spook her when she was already terrified. He sat down next to her and took one of her small hands in both of his.

She looked at him with sad eyes, though she was no longer crying. “I’m really dead, aren’t I?”

Steve whimpered. “I'm so sorry.”

She fell against him, and Steve wound his arms around her, rocking them back and forth for a long time. There was so much he wanted to say to her, and none of it was good enough, so he just held her until she was ready to let him go.

Eventually she pulled back and looked Steve in the eyes. “Can you put me back? I know I'm not supposed to be here, I want to go back.”

“Yea, I can do that.”

When Steve returned from laying Chrissy to rest, the wererats had come. Joyce wanted to treat him, but there were still a few things to be dealt with before his work here was done.

Brenner lay in the spot where he dropped, neck bent at a very wrong angle, but still alive. Steve didn’t know much about the magic that had been keeping this man alive, but he did recall an old rule of thumb he learned from a colleague. A spell can usually be reversed by the opposite of whatever is used to feed it. He’d always liked the idea, it had a certain amount of poetic symmetry. The power in Brenner's necklace was fueled by vampire blood, and what’s the opposite of vampire blood? Steve hoped he knew the right answer.

He knelt by Brenners head and held a shaking hand out towards the man’s throat. The necklace had fallen out of his shirt in the fall, and Steve dragged one of his bleeding cuts along the chain, making sure to leave a fat droplet of the red liquid on the cluster of stones that made up the pendant.

Steve watched the light fade from Brenner’s glassy eyes and felt no satisfaction. He just felt empty.

Joyce again tried to coax Steve to sit down and let her look him over, but he still refused and told her to check on Nancy instead.

He felt eyes on his back as he climbed the stairs, but ignored them, he had one more thing to take care of before he could rest.

Back in the coffin room, Steve searched until he found a key hanging from a hook on the wall. He unlocked the chains from each of the boxes and dragged them off. He knew who was in the two coffins, he could have left right then knowing that when the sun came down Dustin and Eddie would finally be free to leave their confinement, but he couldn’t walk away. Not yet.

He opened the lid of the first coffin and sucked in a breath when Eddie’s face was revealed to the lamp light. His eyes were closed, and if he wasn’t so still Steve could have believed he was sleeping peacefully, but that sort of stillness wasn’t natural. This wasn’t sleep, this was death, temporary as it might be.

He stared down at the vampire's beautiful face and wondered what the right thing to do was. He thought he could save himself a lot of trouble in the long run if he took care of Eddie now. It would be easy to kill him while he was sleeping, while Steve wouldn’t have to look into those big brown eyes. While he wouldn’t have to listen as those pink lips that he’d become so familiar with in his dreams begged for his life.

In the end it came down to Chrissy, and respecting her wishes. She wouldn't want this. She had trusted Eddie. He may have let her down as much as Steve had, but maybe he could be there for others, for Dustin. So, he replaced the lid and turned to the other coffin, hoping his decision wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

Dustin, Steve finds, when he opens the other coffin, looks a little more worse for wear than Eddie had. Of course, the younger vampire hadn’t had someone to feed off of while he was locked up.

He knew he should go, but he couldn't stop staring at the boy’s face. Steve had been to a lot of funerals over the years, where the body of his loved one was put on display, but this was one of his kids. He knew Dustin wasn’t really dead, and that in just a few hours he would rise, and he would feed, and he’d be fine, but it still made Steve's chest tight to see him like this.

He heard the soft footfalls behind him as someone entered the room, but didn’t bother to turn around. He already knew it would be Nancy.

When she reached his side and peered over the edge of the box, Steve tensed.

“I hate that he’s done this to himself.” She said softly.

He watched her carefully through his peripheral vision. “Me too.”

Nancy frowned at him. “You can relax Steve, I'm not about to suggest we kill him or anything. I knew him too.”

He believed her, to an extent, but he also knew how much she hated vampires, and it worried him. She might let Dustin live for now, only to come back for him later.

“I’ve spent a little time with him over the past few days, Nance. He’s still Dustin. Almost infuriatingly exactly as you’d remember him, just, with fangs.” Steve explained, trying to keep the pleading tone out of his voice.

“I know it might seem that way sometimes, Steve, but…”

“No, I'm serious. It’s him, and…you know I didn't talk to him, haven't talked to him since he transitioned. I thought I was doing the right thing, but all I did was rob us both of our friendship. Promise me you won’t go after him.”

“I won’t. I swear. I don’t think Mike would ever forgive me if I did.”

Steve wanted to say, I wouldn’t either, but he didn’t think he needed to.

“What about that one?” Nancy asked, pointing at Eddie's coffin.

“That is, something I think I'll call - ‘better the devil you know’ - and all that jazz.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing there.” She said.

“Me too.”

Steve finally let Joyce treat him after that. The wererats promised to clean up the mess and take care of any remaining Billy supporters. Steve thanked them profusely, and soon he and Nancy were walking out the front door of the theater. He was forced to call Robin to pick them up, no uber or taxi would have stopped for them in their current state.

She picked them up, no questions asked, and she even let him get away with silence until they had dropped Nancy off at her hotel. They parted ways with a hug and Steve thanking her endlessly for her help. She assured him it was her pleasure, and that since the master of the city was in fact killed, she would still be getting paid by her client. If anything she should be thanking him, she assured him.

Once they were alone in the car, Steve filled Robin in on everything she’d missed. They didn’t even pick up his car, he was too tired to drive anyway. They could always get it the next day.

He was still going over the play by play of their fight with Billy when they arrived at his house. Robin helped him inside and coaxed him right into the bath, sitting on the edge to keep him company and he finished his story.

“What are you going to do about Eddie?” Robin asked, as she trailed her fingers through the bath water.

“I don’t know. Ignore him until I can find a way out of this mess?”

“Babe, is that, like, healthy?”

“I don’t know, I'm too tired to figure it out right now.”

All Steve could think about was getting out of the tub and falling into bed. He wouldn’t have minded some platonic best friend cuddles either, but he didn’t want to put Robin out even more than he had already. It turned out, he didn’t even need to ask.

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

God he loved her.

“Please’

Chapter 10

Author's Note: This fic has two pretty definitive halves, since the au inspiration comes from two separate books. This chapter marks the end of part 1, and puts us at the halfway point of the original plans I had for this story. Now, I'm considering making this into a series to be continued past the end of the main fic. There will be a conclusion of sorts by the end of this, but there will still be so much that could be explored past that. Please, as we continue, let me know if you would like to see more when this main story is over. As always, thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I can’t wait to dive into the back half of this fic!

#steve harrington: vampire hunter #steddie fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #vampire eddie munson #vampire hunter steve harrington #wererat king gareth

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callme-adam-iguess · 9 months

Text

PETALDELA AUU :D

Mark has/is.. The purple hyacinth! One of many funeral flowers, it Symbols Sorrow and Regret (and forgiveness I think)

Cesar has/is.. The Rhododendron flower! If I remember correctly, it symbolises Caution and Danger (get it? Bc of the VOL1 incident?)

More under the cut/AU INFOO

Basically, I thought, instead of Alternates, what if theres these flower things that slowly take over the human body if their seeds stick onto them? They'd go to the brain (or any other major organ, but mostly brain)

The flowers are more like either their own bad traits, emotions or just flowers I think would make sense to them, like Mark I didn't really have any idea but he would probably have a lot of Regret and he probably caused a lot of Sorrow

While with Cesar, I also had no fucking idea but the only thing for sure, didn't wanna go with a rose, not because I don't like roses (they're so fucking pretty) but because I know ppl think of Cesar and go with roses (that what happened to me anyways). Plus, Mark didn't really was entirely cautious of the danger he was in when he agreed to help him out but I don't blame him, I would probably do the same thing tbh.

Anyways, the flower infection makes it's victims like Zombies but they're still very conscious of what's going on (depending on how they died) example with.. Well, the two we mentioned before!

Mark: he shot himself in the head, don't ask but the seeds would be on the bullet of the gun (how? Idfk so yeet yer theories at me-) So he probably would be usually quiet/observant and probably tired 24/7.

Cesar: idk what his cause of death would be canonly but in this AU he fell out of a 2nd floor window and landed right on his head (poor guy probably broke his neck and slowly died) but I'd still like to think he's very friendly (maybe Two Faced though?) he would be a bit too friendly at times.. Anyways-

Gabriel would probably still exist, probably be the creator of the zombie flower thing (idk what to call it), guy is just made of the flowers lol. So yes, Dave betrayal death still happens.

Since Mark's body technically left the scene of the crime, he's deemed "Missing" along with Cesar instead of dead, Sarah is working on finding him.

Thatcher is also trying to find Mark and Cesar along with.. Well, you probably guess who the other missing people are :)

That is all for now :D

Also here's the full paper sheet if u really want it:

#petaldela au #mark heathcliff #cesar torres #sarah heathcliff #TOTALLY NOT A REFERENCE TO A TYPE OF FUNGI #tw sui implied #tw death

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bropunzeling · 4 months

Note

If you're still doing the prompt ask meme, Quinn/Brady (or Quinn/Thatcher) for #18, please!

(things you said when you were scared)

"It's weird."

Through the gap in the blackout curtains, Brady can see light: orange streetlights, the neon glow of restaurant signs, the strange blue of the dark in a city. It's almost enough to see Quinn's face in the other queen bed, curled up under the covers. Technically, this is Brady's hotel room - Quinn has his own, just down the hall, like every other prospect in this hotel - but at 11:39 he knocked on Brady's door, and hasn't left yet.

"What?" Brady asks. The non sequitur interrupted the hum of the AC and the mini-fridge, the silence that fell between them ten minutes ago.

"Tomorrow," Quinn says.

They haven't really talked about it. Or like - they have, because you can't not talk about it when you're all here to learn what your future looks like, but they haven't since Quinn crept into Brady’s hotel room. They've talked about everything else - their plans for the rest of the summer; stupid college stories they've already swapped; Quinn telling Brady he should watch The Office already - but not the draft.

"Yeah," Brady says.

The covers rustle. Brady has to squint to make out Quinn's dark hair, his moon-pale face pointed towards Brady. "It's going to be different."

Brady shifts, rolls on his side to face Quinn across the gap between beds. "I mean, yeah," he says. "But like, good, you know? It’s finally happening." He's ready to make the jump from college to the league, play at the level he always knew he'd reach. For the rest of his life to finally start.

"Yeah, but." Quinn’s voice is small and muffled. "Everything's going to change."

There's something about the way Quinn says it, thready and rough, that makes Brady want to get out of bed, close the gap between them and wrap himself around Quinn. The way he's half wanted to ever since he met Quinn, even though he know Quinn doesn't need that from him.

Brady hasn't acted on that impulse so far. He can touch Quinn, but not like that. And definitely not the night before the draft.

"Some things," Brady says finally. "But not everything." Not you and me, he almost says, but doesn't. He's not sure if that's what Quinn meant.

"Yeah?" Quinn asks.

Brady nods, even though he doubts Quinn can see it. "Yeah."

"Yeah," Quinn repeats. "Not everything."

Brady nods again. Stares into the blueblack dark at Quinn's round, blurry face. Wishes he were brave enough to bridge the gap between them tonight, even though he knows he isn't yet. Some things are changing, but not everything.

#ask meme

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yes-i-have-thoughts · 11 months

Text

Pet Headcanons Nobody Asked For

- Cesar had a bunny when he was a kid! It was technically the family pet but the little bugger seemed to prefer him: it would hop towards him whenever it was out of the cage and he entered the room, it sat still in his lap compared to squirming in others’ and it wouldn’t bite him when he gave it treats yet other people were fair game. Maybe it was because he adored the bun and took it with him almost everywhere or maybe he just smelled nice to the ornery old thing.

- He wants another one, but it’s a “after I graduate college” idea since he’s pretty sure he won’t have the time for one otherwise. (Though this doesn’t stop him from swinging by pet stores just to see if they have any and naming all the babies)

- Mark’s family had a great big mutt. The mutt loved Mark, but it drove him crazy because it’s brakes didn’t work very well-which meant that whenever Mark came home from school the dog would plow right into him in lieu of saying hello. He did feel sad after the dog passed on but he doesn’t miss eating pavement every day

- Sarah was too young to remember the dog, but she does remember Mark griping about it and constantly asking why his mother doesn’t stop it from doing that. They didn’t adopt another dog after the big bruiser went, so she figured either it was their mother’s answer to Mark’s constant bitching or the dog was initially their father’s.

- Mark grew up to be more of a cat person after that. Yeah they’re aloof and not as snuggly but they alSO DON’T MOW YOU DOWN AS A WAY OF SAYING HELLO

- Adam vaguely remembers a cat being around sometime in his youth. Mind you his youth is also a giant grey area (and he was apparently never human to begin with) so he could be confusing it with something completely different

- Jonah never had any pets, but an old childhood friend had a big dog that he swore was his platonic soulmate. He sometimes joked that he was friends with the person only because of the dog and it may be coping since their friendship fell apart almost immediately after the dog died, but it wasn’t because of the dog.

- Evelin has a pet bird in her apartment. The feathered friend is her baby and god forbid you imply anything nasty about it. (Adam was bitter that it can’t talk because he was hoping to teach it how to swear.)

- Ruth nagged Thatcher about getting a pet for some bloody reason, so he got a cat and a dog to shut her up. The cat clawed the shit out of everything but loved to snuggle with him, the dog lazed about all day every day. Both animals mysteriously disappeared after the events of 333.

- He doesn’t want to know what happened to them and just hopes that the alternate let them out of the house or something.

- Jonny had to come from somewhere.

#cw animal death #TMC #the mandela catalogue #Cesar Torres #Mark Heathcliff #Sarah Heathcliff #Adam Murray #Jonah Marshall #Evelin Miller #Thatcher Davis

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henriiiii-1001old · 1 year

Text

pt two to this

i am weirdly thinking of making this a series who's with me. like i already have a semi plot for this. not sure if i'm gonna make this an au or not, but we'll see

this one also ended up being a lot longer than the other one i think uuuhhh yeah :/ oops

fic/technical spoilers under the cut

(quick warning for mentions of suicide as well as general angst)

The aroma of freshly made coffee scattered around the barren Mandela County police station. Adam sat patiently at the high table near the counter for his own portion as Thatcher poured the brew into two separate mugs. The smaller one was for Thatcher, though he was scared of caffeine suddenly being able to reveal alternates’ true forms. Maybe he could consult his roommate for that.

Thatcher carefully took both mugs over to where Adam sat, placing his cup in front of him softly as to not spill the contents. The last thing he’d want is for Adam to be upset, especially in regards to the previous night. They had slept comfortably in some sleeping bags Thatcher had luckily found in the storage area. Adam had practically begged to sleep next to him, as embarrassed and humiliated he felt as he did, but Thatcher reassured him that he’d be happy to comfort him in any way. The night passed with Thatcher feeling like a new man.

“Good?” Thatcher asked, waiting for a comment of his craft.

“Yeah, definitely better than how my old friend used to make it,” Adam replied. Thatcher noticed his inflection change when he said the word “friend,” and as much as he wanted to pry - and imply - about it he knew this was not the time or place to do so.

“So, you feeling okay?”

Adam tensed before replying. “Sort of. I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again, but… Yeah.”

Thatcher hummed in understanding and nodded. He took a sip of his own creation before swallowing it and sighing in relief. The only sound filling the room after that were quiet sips of coffee and anxious tapping of their mugs. Adam also tugged and rubbed furiously at the blanket he had wrapped around himself for warmth and comfort. Since he had become attached to Thatcher’s touch so quickly, the blanket was just the next best thing so he wouldn’t be too clingy.

“May I, um, ask about last night?” Thatcher worded carefully as to not upset Adam too much. “I-it’s okay if you’re not ready. I just-”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll try to explain to the best of my abilities,” Adam interrupted, trying to seem genuine since emotions had been difficult for him.

“This all kinda started a few days ago. Me and my… colleague, Jonah, were out doing something for a client. We were supposed to stay there for three whole nights, $500 a night. Can you even believe that? Like, who ever would have thought it was some elaborate trap to have you stick yourself in a basement to hear some shit that doesn’t even make sense? Even from your own mouth?”

Thatcher stared at him utterly confused. Adam had only noticed after a few moments of silence.

“Moving on from that since I’m jumping a bit too far ahead, we had a few disagreements on the place; my colleague wanted to leave but I had a sort of connection to the place somehow. I had even gone there once before with Sarah, in which after that whole thing I had to get my colleague as my new ghost hunting partner.”

“And your colleague was Jonah Marshall, was it not?”

Adam went dead silent. Thatcher got his answer from that.

“Understood. Uh, go on if you’re good with that.”

“Yeah… um, well. We kinda got into a huge fight on the second day, in which he brought up my mother and I just. Told him to leave if he really wanted to not be there. And he… did.

"I went down into that fucking basement expecting something amazing to happen. Something like my mom coming back or some shit. Nothing happened. All I got was more questions and a pissy attitude, which led me to just go searching for J- my colleague myself.”

Thatcher eagerly listened as Adam poured everything he had remembered, paying attention to every time his voice faltered and gave way to his true emotions. He even almost mentioned Jonah, which definitely confirmed Thatcher’s suspicions by that point.

“I found him by the car he stole earlier that day. Dead. I was too deep in an angry, nonhuman frenzy that I just took the car and left, not even shedding a proper tear for him.

Sarah and I had a fight about him, leading her to make me make some stupid memorial video for him. I didn’t wanna think about it, I didn’t wanna do it. I felt horrible, and her making me do that only made things worse. And I even logged off for a few hours after that because I just couldn’t handle it.

“And then he showed up.”

Thatcher perked up. Who’s “he” , he thought to himself, ever so curious as to what Adam could be alluding to.

“He… was the one who told me everything. Started rambling off about how he ‘held me in his arms’ or some dumb shit. I didn’t understand at first, but whatever he did to me made me feel so numb and lifeless. I couldn’t move. Not until he said… He…. told me…”

“Hey, you’re okay. If it’s too heavy for you, you can-”

“I’m not the real me.”

Thatcher held his tongue and listened. It was the only thing he could do as he was too far deep. He couldn’t get Adam’s now black eyes off of him, staring directly into his soul it seemed. Adam looked like he didn’t even breathe to speak his next words, staring Thatcher down like prey.

“He told me I was one of them. If Sarah hadn’t cut the bitch off I would have gotten more answers. But someone always has to stand in my way, don’t they, Lieutenant? ”

Thatcher stared into the orbs that occupied Adam’s sockets, frozen in place as panic rose within his body. He couldn’t move; no matter how much the training had taught him to fight, he could never push himself to. He could only pray that Adam didn’t do this all to kill him, that would just be absurd, right?

“Davis?”

A breath was taken that Thatcher didn’t know he needed. He blinked a few times to ground himself to his surroundings once more. He was still staring at Adam, but his eyes had returned to normal. He sighed in relief.

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me…” Adam began to bury himself in his hands, curl into another ball and cry the embarrassment and shame away.

“No! No, no, no, no you’re okay, kid,” Thatcher quickly tried reassuring him, his body ready to hold Adam again at any time in case he needed a quick cooldown.

“I panicked, I… I didn’t know how to process everything, I tried killing myself in so many ways… None of them FUCKING WORKED!”

Adam’s form began to blur as his skin melted, his eyes and mouth becoming more prominent features on his face. His limbs began to elongate themselves again, and his skin even turned even paler than he already was. Thatcher dashed to the other side of the table, cradling Adam’s torso and head into his own. He softly ran his hands through the alternate’s hair, soothing him the best he could.

“Adam, please don’t be upset with yourself right now. I know you can’t control it, and I understand how painful it must be to have your whole identity stripped from you.”

“HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?! ” Adam screamed, his voice echoing throughout the station’s walls and back into the current room.

“The same night your mother died I almost lost my life to one of those things!”

Adam suddenly grew quiet, whimpers and sniffles being the only sound emitted from him as he slowly looked up at Thatcher.

“Her husband called me, asking for help… I should have known it was a trap. I lost a friend too, the only one I could trust. I left her behind to rot in that fucking house… I wouldn’t doubt she’s still there, waiting to exact her revenge on me.

"I couldn’t tell if I was a person anymore after I encountered that thing in the tunnels below Mandela. It took my face, my voice, my mannerisms, everything , and left me there to suffer. I went home that night feeling stalked, haunted, as I have been for the past 17 fucking years. If anyone on this fucking planet knows how you feel, it’s me. And I’m sorry that it has to be me…”

Neither had any words for the next few minutes, Adam shifting in and out of his human and alternate forms before settling on a mix of both. He wasn’t sure how he ended up like that, but he’d just deal with it later like he did all his problems. Thatcher suddenly carefully dropped his head onto Adam’s head, covering his face in the blonde’s curly hair.

“You knew her… ” Adam whispered, his voice wavering slightly.

“Not really. Barely got to even take her body for examination before I got chased out of that damn house.”

“Do you remember anything else from that night?”

Adam took his turn asking for Thatcher’s suffering as he had already explained his. And Thatcher reluctantly answered, lifting his head out of Adam’s hair before speaking.

“Kinda, I remember first walking into the room and seeing some creepy fucking guy on a TV on the floor before it immediately disappeared. Don’t know what that guy wanted or if he was even real at all.”

Adam’s eyes widened; he recognized the figure Thatcher was talking about. He just needed more info. “Do you remember what he looked like?”

“Not really, uuhh. Short and dark hair, permanent smile on his bastard ugly face, looked kinda creepy.”

“Did he look like some sort of weird entertainment guy?”

Thatcher paused. “…Yeah.”

Adam stared at Thatcher dead in the eyes once more but with a look more recognizable as confusion and concern than disdain. Silence filled the room once more, a common pattern between the pair at this point. Speaking so much they end up oversharing followed by a deafening silence as they process every word that was said. This time, however, neither party knew how to advance the conversation.

“Um, we’ll talk more later. Need more coffee?” Thatcher asked to break the silence, following his question with an awkward but reassuring smile.

Adam nodded and smiled back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night came as fast as it left, the day being spent through joint work on cases that Thatcher suddenly gained the energy to look into once more, joking around with each other, a few video games in which Thatcher almost always lost, and staying in each other’s general company. After a whole range of emotions displayed by the duo throughout the day, both were spent and needed a nice, long sleep to prepare for the following day.

Adam had once again wanted to sleep next to Thatcher, and Thatcher gladly obliged. He felt that Adam was becoming too dependent on him too quickly, but he didn’t want to upset him at the current moment. Thankfully, the alternate fell asleep almost instantly, being overwhelmed with exhaustion with everything he’s had to deal with the past few days - hell his entire life. Thatcher himself was preparing to shut down for the night as well, making himself comfortable next to Adam and ensuring that Adam was also comfortable in his current position facing Thatcher.

“Wait.”

A voice… An actual voice called to him. It seemed dark and raspy, almost as if it was struggling to breathe.

“What…?” Thatcher squinted his eyes in reaction to the intruder. He darted his eyes around the room somewhat quickly to try and scan the area for any potential threats.

“Follow the static, Thatcher. Or if you’d prefer, the music. We have some things to discuss.”

A recording of a music box suddenly filled Thatcher’s ears, almost hypnotizing him to follow its melody. However, Thatcher quickly grabbed a small pocket knife he always kept handy before venturing out into the darkness, a sense of déjà vu hitting him.

He followed the strange melody to where he believed the source would be: his work computer. He carefully took a seat in the almost uncomfortable office chair as he stared into a blank, static filled screen, something he had only seen on old analog TV’s. He didn’t even notice that the music had faded or that a face had appeared on the screen until it started speaking.

“A song made for the girl lost in a land of wonder and inexplicable magic and absurdity, ruby slippers holding more power than any being in that dimension. A song describing how desperately she wished for a better life no matter that her life had been mundane at worst. A song that my son liked very much,” the voice began as if it were making a speech just for Thatcher to hear. It made him shiver at the thought.

“The slippers were meant to be silver, however, though they would seem dull against the colorful atmosphere of the set. My little boy never cared, his caretakers only put it on once to distract the little one before realizing he was entirely captivated by it. Who knew he would react so much when I played it for him again years later?”

“Who are you? What do you want? Why are you talking so much?” Thatcher inquired, anger rising with each question that slipped off his tongue.

“Simple, Lieutenant. I’m Adam’s father.”

The statement boiled Thatcher’s blood for reasons even he did not understand at the moment. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and disgust as he tried to search for words. The figure interrupted him before he could try to put together a single cohesive sentence in his mind.

“I’m the one that took him away. Although, it would have been for the greater good anyway. His caretakers never truly loved him, did they?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The man especially became more absent than the woman, though it’s quite ironic that she was meant to leave this plane of existence before him. The boy’s birth was a joint effort, but one must take more blame than the other, of course. It’s only human nature to push blame onto one party rather than accept the truth of reality. Which is quite funny considering-”

“Stop fucking jumping around everywhere and get to the damn point!”

“Ssshhhhh , you don’t want to wake him up now, do you?”

Thatcher went silent, biting his lip furiously before backing down completely. He looked away, malice burning in his eyes.

“Good. I’ve simply come here to warn you about what you’re doing. We’ve kept tabs on him to make sure someone doesn’t interrupt his ascension into reaching his full potential, his assimilation to become one of us .”

Thatcher felt suffocated by the atmosphere, wanting to back away from his monitor while the static kept him snugly in place, urging him to reach closer to it instead. He couldn’t move, and his breath felt hindered when nothing was stopping its regular flow.

“You… you’re the one who told him…” Thatcher choked out, his words careful and choppy.

“Indeed. Perhaps you remember me? It’s been a long while since I have seen your face, Mr. Davis.”

“Stop switching up how you call me, please just stick to one. And yes, I most likely do.”

“Would this give you a reminder, Thatcher?” the figure’s face warped spontaneously, and his voice changed alongside it. It sounded more cheery, more charismatic. It made Thatcher sick to his stomach when he fully realized he truly had been talking to who he thought he was.

“Yes… it does,” Thatcher practically breathed out. “And I hate it.”

“Good! I was worried it wouldn’t. Then something would reeaaally be wrong with you! However,” its face and voice returned to its previous state, “my warning still stands. We do not need people like you ruining his only chance to join us once again. To become a family.”

Thatcher slammed his palms against his work desk, standing up as he fumed with anger. “You are NOT his family! You things don’t care about people!”

“But he isn’t a person. Why would you care for something as dangerous to your kind as he is?”

“He’s not dangerous; he’s confused, he’s scared, he’s hurt. You hurt him, and he clearly hasn’t accepted the thought of being lied to his entire life, suddenly having his identity stripped away from him sending him into a spiral down through the deepest parts of Hell! I care because that’s human nature, you heartless fuck!”

The screen glitched for a mere moment, revealing the face had disappeared. The static still remained, however, sending Thatcher into a slight panic.

A hand had swiped him from behind, bringing him close to an itchy textured body. The hand’s texture alone threatened to slice Thatcher’s throat at any minute, almost puncturing his skin.

“I told you to be quiet, did I not? If you truly do not wish to hurt him, I suggest you shut your mouth before I make you, ” the figure threatened, squeezing the blood flow traveling to Thatcher’s head to make him feel faint very quickly. Thatcher nodded his head frantically.

“If I killed you right here, would it be too similar to your beloved 'guardian angel’s’ death?” it chuckled, the thought amusing it while only confusing Thatcher.

“How do you…”

“I watched the entire encounter. She died right in front of you, you know. The thing that followed you home hid the blood on his hands for 17 whole years. The blood of your angel coughing up the last bit of her life, his hands squeezing so tight her head almost popped out of place, her voice begging for mercy as she watched her murderer transform into you, making her believe you had betrayed her, all of which happened right before your very eyes.”

Thatcher squirmed, he couldn’t take any more of this thing’s rambling. What was worse was that the grip on his neck only became tighter. He began to try and slam his hands into the figure holding him hostage, pleading for it to release him.

“My final point is that if you mess with his head any more than you have, I’ll find a way to work around your necessity to Him and kill you myself.”

Thatcher was released, being pulled down into his seat to let him recover. The chair moved slightly away from the monitor due to the force, and Thatcher’s head was practically spinning without even spinning the chair. He took several deep breaths before the assailant spoke once more, now in front of him and out of the monitor.

“Or maybe you’d consider a compromise?”

Thatcher darted his eyes to the alternate, still slightly in a daze. “What…? Compromise?”

“I won’t have to kill you if you give him up. We’ll go our separate ways, and if He needs you to be in Adam’s presence again then you’ll know. Or maybe…”

The figure began stepping closer to its current victim, careful in not approaching him too quickly for its own liking. Thatcher followed its eyes as the distance between them shortened and shortened. Once it felt it was close enough, it leaned down to Thatcher’s face, revealing itself in full disgusting glory.

“We could raise him together?”

Thatcher’s heart sank. The skin moved in an unsettling manner, making Thatcher’s own skin crawl. The eyes were mismatched completely, one seeming to have popped out of its socket while the other would have been considered more of a lazy eye if Thatcher didn’t feel like he was being stared down by a predator. Its mouth was probably the most disturbing part, moving slightly slower than how it was speaking and sometimes dragging out certain sounds. The words came out so clean from its mouth, and yet it was like its mouth couldn’t keep up. Kind of like Adam when he screamed in agony…

Every part of him was screaming at him to run, to get Adam and take him far away from this county, from this state, from this whole damn country if he had to. But the fear - and the static - kept him in place to his dismay. He was trapped, required at that point to entertain the monster’s ideas.

“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice almost inaudible to how much he was shaking. He cursed internally at himself for that.

“You wouldn’t have to worry about death. You could be able to protect him while also helping him achieve his purpose. You could still be there for him. I could see the hope in your eyes every time he smiled. That’s how I was when I first held him in my arms.”

“But… I don’t understand. What would you want from me?”

“You could become one of us.”

Just from that sentiment, Thatcher realized what it meant: they’d replace him with the demon that followed him home. This thing expected him to be that stupid, huh? Was this also part of the other voice’s test? A test of resilience and intelligence? Part of him didn’t want to know, but he did know his answer to the question he was asked.

“No. To Hell with that,” he asserted, his voice deep and quiet as to heed the alternate’s previous warning. “I know what games you’re playing, and I’m not stupid if that’s what you think of me. You’re gonna have to think twice if you think you can deceive me .”

In that instant, the intruder retreated to the monitor, a look of disappointment trying to settle on its face.

“We’ll see when He puts his plan into play. I shall see you soon. Oh, and tell Adam his dear father, Stanley, says hello. Goodnight, Lieutenant.”

And with that, it was gone. The monitor shut off, the static was gone, and Thatcher was alone. He suddenly became so fatigued from having to rely on the static’s influence to keep him awake now that it disappeared. He slumped into his office chair and fell into a deep slumber, hoping that the voice from before didn’t interrupt his sleep once more.

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voidwritesstuff · 6 months

Text

Found Family.

Cw: alusions/scenes of PTSD,flashbacks bcs of ptsd. Mentions of grief and body horror. Mentions of a big age gap between oc n Thatcher. (But not in a weird way)

Summary: Adam and Thatcher explore their father-son relationshipp with the help of Thatcher's girlfriend.

->Jerico is my oc/self insert. Pronouns are she/they. Also, my hc is that Adam is 18. (Also about the age gap. Oc is technically not human so do w that what you Will)

->some of the scenes are based off of @moonlightsmasquerade Thatcher and Adam art. (Also hi Em! If youre Reading this im @/screchinginthevoid)

->Word count: 4.2k.

There were Many things that Adam did on accident, like all humans. Well...except he wasnt human, he was an alternate.

That realization still hadnt fully set in yet, hes lived his whole life as a human, the mere idea he wasnt was ludicrous...but it was true.

He was not alone in this thankfully, he's been "adopted" by Lieutenant Davis, and hes been staying with him ever since. The house was quite modest, Adam had taken up the responsability of at least keeping the house clean when he had the energy to, Thatcher some days was just a wallflower. (And he didnt blame him, that Man had been through some shit).

Sometimes their saving Grace was Jerico, Thatcher's partner, who brings them food and whatever is left of the pastries of the bakery she worked at. She was Real nice, Adam had decided, so he kept a bit of distance as to not freak her our (but there was something off with her he couldnt quite place).

Today was one of those days, food had run out yesterday, and neither had the energy to get out and get something. It was just one of those days.

But Thatcher had the foresight to call his partner up and ask if they coul bring food. And that she did.

The door opens with a slight creak, Adam doesnt look up from the book hes Reading, but he does smile a little. She was good company.

--Hey kid-- she said, kissing the top of his head covered with the hood of his hoodie,leaving the Many heavy bags on the table.

--arent you like one year older than me?--He teased with a smirk.

--Well yeah? Its a term of endearment. But if it bothers you I can stop-- she replied, grabbing the food thats supposed to be refrigerated-- wheres your dad?

Adams face goes a little pink-- Hes not my dad!-- he whined,closing the book-- hes- hes in his room I guess

--Davis!-- she calls out towards one of the rooms across the nearby Hall. She turns to Adam and says-- hey, do you mind putting these in the fridge?

--No I dont. Go get that raccoon of a man out of bed-- he said with a playfull smile. She laughs and goes towards Thatcher's room.

When shes our of sight he stands up and does as he was asked. He opens the fridge and slowly fills it up with the food. He had to admit that seeing the fridge full once more was very soothing, he felt as if he was helping around the house like a child would help his parents.

Five minutes later he sees Thatcher come out of his room with Jerico hugging Him from behind.

--What took you so long?--Adam joked, putting away some of the other groceries.

--Well,Mr.Racooon over here was a little too wrapped up In his blankets. Basically a burrito-- she teased pressing a kiss to his shoulderblade.

--drop it--thatcher murmured, amused at the joke even if he was deathly tired.

--Mmhmm. Hes in denial,I tell you-- she turns to face Adam and sees what hes doing, it moves her a little and she adds-- yknow you dont gotta put away the rest, I can do it

A little flustered,the boy shrugs and says-- s'nothing... I uh. I was bored so...-- he half lied, not turning around to face them so neither would see how flustered he was.

--Thats very sweet of you kiddo! Thanks-- jeri answered, to then give a quick hug to Thatcher(who saw this whole exchange as something adorable) and tell him-- go get a book and sit in the sofa,lunch'll be Ready in a bit

He nodds, too exhausted to convince her to let him do something. Thatcher grabs the book Adam was Reading and goes to lay down on the nearby sofá, at least this was better than wallow in his grief in a dark room.

Jerico quickly gets to making lunch, Adam stands near her unsure if he should volunteer himself to help her out

--Hey Adam, mind handing me one of the pans? -- she asked absentmindedly as she cuts up a few potatos.

"Fries?" The boy thought with enthusiasm, something he hasnt felt in a while - Uh sure. Let me just..-- he kneels to reach one of the lower cabinets under the kitchen counter and notices that said pan is all the way to the back.

He huffs and tries to reach it, and here is one of the things he does without noticing. His arm extends unaturally,growing large enough to reach the back of the cabine. He grabs the handle of the pan and he pulls it out, to then stand back up and place it on the counter.

--Thank you- JESUS CHRIST!--she squeals looking at the arm. It was paper white and boney looking, his fingers are clawy and a little crooked.

--Oh im so sorry-- He starts,freaking the fuck out. He lets go of the pan and pulls back his extended arm.-- please dont be mad at me--

Jeri only meets his gaze and smiles a little-- you caught me off guard, thats all-- she Gently takes his clawy hand and squeezes it reassuringly. His palm feels deathly cool, while hers feels unaturally warm.

--How doesnt this freak you out?--He pointed at his arm with his free hand.

--Ive seen some shit-- she shrugs it off as if she encountered alternates every day-- I was not expecting to see you go Reed Richards on me thats all, thats actually a really clever answer to a problem

Adam smiles, sometimes he feels shes the only one that understands him,-- I really dont get how youre not smacking me across the face with the pan. Your answer isnt very clear

She snorts and Gently lets go of his hand--Ill elaborate one day, 'till then feel free to make your own theories. Anyway, can you return that arm to normal or do you need some help?

He shrugs-- Give me like...five minutes?

--'kay --She replied lightheartedly as she filled the pan with sunflower seed oil and set it on the stove-- im spit balling here but maybe remebering how your arm looked like before would help?

Adam squints at her a little, he felt as if she was talking out of experience. Those were the little things he felt off about her, not in a bad way, she just felt like she knew more than she was letting on.-- ...ill try-- he replied, going to sit at the table and try to get back to normal.

When he succesfully does manage to fix up his arm, he keeps helping out on the kitchen. Apparently Thatcher had passed the fuck out during their whole previous exchange,which was good because neither thought the ex cop would take that lightly.

--Dyou mind keeping an eye on them burgers?-- jerico asked,snapping Him from his thoughts-- when that other side is cooked flip it. N' once that one is ready too just make a small cut in the middle to check if its not raw

He nodds--I know cooking burgers is pretty easy but...where did you learn to Cook like that?-- he asked over the sound of sizzling oil.

--Ive had Many,Many,Years to practice-- she replied-- thanks for helping out by the way,I appreciate it. N I also know you Keep your distance some days,which is fine. Just know you can be yourself around me,I know from personal experience that walking on eggshels is tiring

Adam shifts his weight, he doest look away from the cooking burgers. Hes still getting used to so Many things,kindness was one of them-- alright...--He replied dryly, trying to save what little of his pride remained.

--Do you want your bread toasted by the way?--She asked-- I couldnt get normal Burger bread so I got Rye bread. Its better anyway

He smirks-- hmm I dont think Thatcher would agree on that

--Good thing hes asleep then right? He would die on that hill defending Burger bread as the only aceptable type for burgers-- to drive the joke home she adds a playfull "conspiratorally" wink.

Adam,for the first time in a while, allowed himself to laugh. A genuine laugh, not loud enough to wake Thatcher up,but it wasnt a chuckle either-- yes,yes he would.

Once lunch was ready, Jeri wakes up Thatcher (who had Fallen asleep with the book on his face) and the three get to eat lunch. Adam sits on the end of the table, his two companions sat on each side of him.

--This is really good. The fries are very good-- Adam says,gobblin down on the fries.

--Yeah...--Said Thatcher,looking at the rye bread on each side of his burger paty,glaring daggers at the poor thing.

--Your girlfriend over here busted her ass cooking!--The boy started, pointing at him menacingly with a frye-- youre gonna eat that or ill shove it down your throat

Thatcher looks at jerico as if to say "yo help me out?!" But his girlfriend only puts a hand on the boys shoulder and smirks-- dont look a gift horse in the mouth,Davis

Begrudgingly he eats his Burger, not admitting that the rye bread was actually good.

Before Jerico leaves to go to work, she says bye to her boyfriend with a big ole kiss. Adam fake gags just to be a little shit, then she hugs the teen alternate tightly and smirks at how tense he gets.

--i brought lieutenant Burger Bread his favorite pastries. Dont tell him cause hes gonna have a hissy fit about it-- she whispered near his ear-- I also brought a few of your favorites,enjoy

He nodds and smirks at the nickname for Thatcher. As he pulls back a little,he allows his hands to settle on her upper back,shy and stiff as a board-- uh...good luck?-- he muses trying to at least give back some of the kindness she always gives him.

She promptly breaks the hug as to not fluster Him further and grabs her keys,ready to go-- Alright! Im leaving! Bye!

--Bye!--both men echo back once she closes the door.

Then, theres a five second silence broken by Adam saying-- if you dont MARRY her,ill Actually kill you

Now its thatchers turn to become flustered. His face goes bright red and stomps off without another word,leaving the boy very amused with a shit eating smirk.

《♡♡♡♡♡》

Today was one of those days where Adam just fucks up, he had tried to do something very dumb that had to do with scaling up a tree in the back yard wearing sneakers. He almost fell on one misstep And Thatcher had to get him down like a fireman rescuing a cat.

--But seriously,you shouldnt do something like that-- Thatcher scolded,trying to not be pushy but getting his point across.

--But seriously,you shouldnt do something like that-- Adam parroted, a little annoyed. But his voice isnt his own, instrad its thatchers. It comes out with static and distorted.

When he realizes what he did,he covers his mouth and looks at thatcher,who meets his gaze looking like a deer in headlights. The older Man's breath is shallow,his eyes wide but his pupils small.

--I am so sorry! I didnt mean to do that...!-- he exclaimed recoiling into himself.

Thatcher took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves-- Okay,but please dont ever do something like that..

Adam nodds and silently, the other Man goes to his room,probably to have his own proper freak out and then come back. Leaving the boy to feel really guilty.

《♡♡♡♡♡》

Adam was still getting used to his New body, sometimes it had a mind of its own, he would mimic certain things without thinking.

He was talking with Thatcher on the sofá,just sharing a cup of coffee and talking about whatever, school,sports, the freaking weather. And internally,Adam thinks of how happy he is to have someone like Thatcher backing Him up,despite everything being so confusing for the boy,he was glad to have someone to rely on after years of being on his own.

Thats when it happens, Adam's face morphs into Thatcher's,only partially, half of his face reflects his companion. But he doesnt notice it until he sees his reflection on the coffee of his mug.

He looks up and is met with Thatcher,he was deathly quiet, eyes wide and body shaking.

--oh no nono-- im sorry-- I can fix it!. Jerico taught me how- I didnt mean to--IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I SWEAR!--Adam slowly freaks out, he tries to reach for his friend with one hand while the other covers his face with the hood of his jacket. But the ex cop moves away from him and it breaks the boys heart who slowly descends into a panick attack

Thatcher on his end was gone,the world had gone black, all he sees is half of his own face staring back at him, then he sees Ruth's face, Mark's face. Hes shaking and he doesnt notice it, his breath is erratic,shallow and his head feels as if it was spinning.

Ruth,Mark,himself. Ruth,Mark,himself. A scared boy with a gun-- you left her to rot,there isnt enough space for the two of us,lieutenant. Uh oh! Bad decision Thatcher!

He breaks,hes a sobbing mess as he grips his Cup tight. As if it was a gun. But hes non responsive. Hes just not there.

In his desesperation,Adam manages to take his weak body towards the telephone,he punches in the numbers hoping to god he gets it right. He himself was in no position to help Thatcher, even if he knew how.

If anybody knew how to fix up this mess was--

--Jerico?--Adam says, voice barely a whisper.

"Adam? Whats wrong buddy--" jeri's voice comes out as soothing if not worried.

--I- I accidentally copied Thatcher's voice. I think-- I think hes having some sort of attack? Hes...hes not talking. I fucked up im so sorry im so--

"Lissen" she said,voice stern but warm"Heres what youe going to do. You go somewhere where Thatcher cant see you, first you need to calm down, breath in deeply four times, look for 5 things you can see,4 you can touch,3 you can hear,2 you can smell and 1 you can taste. Repeat as Many times as you need. Once youre calm youll try to remember how you look like,just like you did your arm. Ill help Thatcher. Be there in twenty. And walk slowly,dont do any sudden movements as to not scare him,okay?"

--its all my fault,im so sorry! -- He said.

"Its not. Youre still discovering this New self of yours. Its not your fault, hes not going to be angry,okay? Take it easy Adam,youre a great kid"

--Even when im like this? Im a GODDAMN demon--

He hears jerico sigh on the other end of the phone. He goes quiet and she says"i know how hard It is to Keep your human form. Trust me I would know, im gonna let you in on a secret but you cant tell Thatcher. Ill tell him when he-- when im ready"

Adam's eyes go wide, his breath gets caught in his throat and he whispers a-- wait-- rwally-- but--

"If I ever felt off to you,thats why. Now please, go do what I told you" she replied softly, he nodds and adds.

--Thank you- for trusting me

He can hear the smile on her voice"thank you for trusting me. Ill be there in 20,kid."

--'Kay mom-- he whispers without realizing and he hangs up. Adam walks away slowly, not making eye contact,no sudden movements. He just goes into his room and does what he was asked to do.

20 minutes later,Jerico gets into the house,finding Thatcher still on the couch,shaking And unresponsive.

--Thatch-- love-- she calls out, taking the coffee and setting it on the coffe table. She then takes her hands-- its me-Jeri

The Man focuses his eyes on her,but hes not fully there yet. She softly adds-- Babe,youre having a flashback right now, its not Real, whatever youre seeing its not Real

--Ruth- mark! I left them both to die-- I couldnt-!

--Thatch, its been 17 Years,its not your fault-- she steps a little closer, sitting on his lap with her hands still holding his-- today is sunday, three days ago I re-stocked your pantry. You were dissapointed it wasnt normal Burger bread instead of rye bread. Do you remember that?

He nodds a little, she looks at his face for any signs that hes coming back to the Real world-- do you remember the first time we met? It was at the bakery that I work at,you looked like a deer in headlights when we made eye contact. You tried some cheesy pickup line a few days later "sugar isnt good for people but ill risk it a for you" you were so flustered

At this,he smiles a little and lets out a laugh,his body relaxes and he blinks a few times before saying-- Angel?

She smiles as her face softens, her worried files gaze now replaced with warmth-- hey-- she said,sounding impossibly soft-- welcome back

--What-- what happened? -- he asked, looking around-- wheres-- wheres Adam? Why do I feel so out of breath?

--adam accidentally copied your face, I think it sent you down a fight or flight rabbit hole and triggered a flashback-- she replied, letting go of one of his hands to push his hair out of his face-- Adams in his room I think,I told him to do some grounding excersices to calm down and return to normal

--I need to check on him-- he said about to stand up before she stops him.

--What you need,is to relax,ill check on him once I make sure youre fully here with me-- she replied,pushing Him back down on the sofa.

--Babe-- dont--

--Thatcher,im deadly fucking serious with this. Ill take care of it,you stay put-- she replied,his usual soft and sunshine filled girlfriend looks at him sternly and it catches him off guard-- now, what color is my shirt?

He rolls his eyes, feeling a little silly for doing these sorts of things-- yellow

--Good. Do you see something blue around?-- She asked, Helping him identify things that were around him with the goal that he stays in the moment. It takes them a solid fifteen minutes since Thatcher kept insisting he was fine

--Alright last thing. Tell me something from before we got together. Nothing painfull mind you. Try and think of something funny

It takes him a solid minute, his arms slung lazily around her waist. But he finally thinks of something and gets a shit eating grin on his face-- I remember I uses this one pick up line with you. And you got flustered.

--Oh no-- she starts,looking away as her face goes red.

--It must be a day off in heaven for an angel like you to be amongst us!-- he quoted, feeling very smug and proud of himself.

--You cant just hit me with that because the bakery I work at its called Seraphim! Thats so cheap!-- she whined-- okay big guy if you can be smug it means youre fine.

Jerico stands up and Gently smacks Him on the bicep-- ill go check on Adam your ass stays here

He sighs and nodds-- whatever you say,angel!

--Drop the GODDAMN nickname!-- she replied flusteredly.

Soon she reaches Adams room. She knocks on the door a few times before she lets herself in. Jerico finds Adam on a corner,slumped and really frustrated.

Through the gloom she sees Thatcher's face meeting Adams usual face. His eyes shine in the darkness and she says--Hey, any luck with that?

--No! It doesnt want to-- I did what you asked me and it still didnt work!. I cant figure out whats wrong and its just-- he drops his hands that were clutching his hair down on his lap,frustrated And defeated.

Jeri sits beside him, and she reaches for his face. He recoils back out of instinct-- sorry its just- dont angels hate demons?

--Youre no demon. Youre just a kid-- she replied, pressing her hand against the side of his face that had thatchers features-- And my ass has been out of heaven since the days of the bible.

--Did you fall?

--More like ran away when fake Gabriel reared his ugly face in

She sighs and Gently turns his face to the side so she can fully see the extent of the transformation-- what I do is try and remember what I look like in this form. But since thats not working...do you have any pics of yourself?

He nodds towards the framed photo on his nightstand-- that one

Shes quick to Grab it and turn on one of the lamps in the room. With more visibility she hands him the picture--try and imitate it

Jerico walks him through returning to normal, then she makes sure hes calm before helping him up-- Are you ready to go out?

He nodds, a little shy-- what about Thatcher?

--Lemme ask him-- the woman opens the door and says-- hey thatch! I helped Adam out. How are you feeling?

Adam heard Thatcher say-- 'm okay. Tell the kid to come out

She offers her hand and the boy takes it as she guide her back to the livingroom/kitchen where the other Man was.

Thatcher looks at the boy and says-- im sorry--

--Its my fault-- I didnt mean to -- the ex cop hugs him and he hugs back. Crying into his shoulder.

--Its not your fault kid,youre still learning. I dont blame you

--Still-- he sobbed,wiping away a few tears-- I feel really...really bad for making you go through that..

--As Thatcher said-- jeri added,patting his back--wasnt your fault, bodies are fucking weird sometimes, us humans are weird too

Both share a knowing glance, as if they had their own little inside joke. Which leaves the other Man a little confused,but he rather not ask for the sake of their privacy.

--Im going to make some tea for the three of us,you two talk things out-- the woman declared, leaving both men some space to try and resolve this somehow.

《♡♡♡♡♡》

Thatcher was the first one to wake up Next day, he had gotten some needed shut eye, and as he makes breakfast, he hears two sets of steps approach him. Both are slow and clumsy, seems the other two residents of his house are awake.

--Hey -- jeri says, nuzzling his bicep while her hand rests on his Lower back.

--Morning,Angel. Heres your tea,theres uh..pancakes on the table-- he replied.

--Youre a godsend-- she murmured, grabbing the cup of tea she handed him and sitting on the table.

Then Adam peeked from behind the Man, a little tired-- morning-- he said.

--Hey kid. Morning. I made coffee-- he replied handing the boy a mug with fresh coffee.

--Thanks dad-- he replied, not paying much attention to what he said. Then he goes to sit at the end of the table Next to Jeri.

"Dad??? Dad???He called me dad!" Oh my god!" He thought before quickly replying a-- Youre welcome,Son.

Jerico hears the whole exchange with a grin. Then she looks at Adam who is happily drinking his coffee.

--Hey,check out what the old Mans wearing-- she whispers at her friend.

Adam looks and sees hes wearing..--Is that the apron you use for work?

She giggled-- Yup.

Thatcher seems to hear their little talk because he points at both of them with his spatula and says -- for the record, its an apron. Im using it for whats supposed to be used. I dont wanna hear it-- he looks almost threatening if it wasnt for the fact the was using the spatula to threaten them both.

--Sir yes sir-- both reply at the same time, giggling and joking under their breath.

Soon, Thatcher joins the table, sitting on the other side of Adam. And as the three eat their breakfast, the older Man notices something.

--Uh.. you- your face is uh...-- he starts,not sure of what to say

--huh?--Adam asks, as his lids and side of his face seem to droop down.

Jeri looks up from her cup and simply says-- your face is melting dude. Youre out here looking like "the scream" by Munch.

--Oh cool. -- Adam said,sounding more annoyed than freak out-- excuse me a minute -- he stands up and goes to his room to fix up himself.

--I do not know what you told that kid but he seems to be doing better by the day-- thatch whispered over to her,leaning in.

--Kindness goes a long way. Guess he thinks of me as an equal-- she shrugged it off,taking a sip from her drink--he called me mom yesterday

--he what?-- he asked a little surprised-- thats too cute

--We're adopting Him. I dont care if hes already a legal adult. You n i are adopting him

He reaches to take her hand and winks at her-- ten-four.-- both share a smile and soon Adam is back.

Jerico leaves for work after breakfast, she says her goodbyes and plays dumb as Adam says --Bye mom! -- and happily goes on her merry way to her car.

Then,Thatcher pulls Adam for an awkward side hug and he leads him to the yard--Im gonna teach you how to defend yourself

--Why?

--Do you see any other way to kill time?

Adam snorts-- fine. -- he replied following him out-- thanks..dad

Thatcher smiles--Dont mention it kiddo.

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mamamittens · 2 months

Text

Since I'll probably never get to it, I figure I'd share this snippet I wrote for a fic I really wanted to do well over a year ago. Technically, I've wanted to write a The Gamer inspired fic for YEARS but math is hard and it's a lot of technical world building I could never commit to (⁠｡⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠)

Uhhh, context, it's about an OC named Mina (nickname, her full name is pretentious). She ate (? Was still deciding if I wanted it to be like The Gamer manga and it's just a random skill or a devil fruit) what's essentially a gamer fruit and periodically does dungeon runs. She's Thatch's niece, I wanted her to travel for a bit with the Straw Hats until they meet Ace and she explains she's looking for her uncle (with a horrific name, Thatch being short for like, Thatcher or smt, it's written down somewhere???) And Ace realizes who she's looking for. Not sure if he thought Thatch was dead or nah but takes her along cause he feels responsible in at least taking her to Whitebeard as his technical grandkid.

She went looking for Thatch cause she's still a minor but owns all her parents assets and her paternal uncle has gambling debts... And may have been about to sell her out to Crocodile, didn't decide honestly. But basically she REALLY couldn't stay home any longer.

Anyway! Until an incident where she nearly dies and discovers she can actually call for help, she... Doesn't quite blend well with the crew. Mostly cause Thatch has BEEF with his family and doesn't quite know how to handle this.

This snippet is after her DF is discovered and she's saved from a boss battle, essentially.

The rest is explained well enough in this fic.

(snippet under the cut)

The kitchens were mostly vacated at the moment. Thatch’s division busy elsewhere until it was time to get to the meat of meal prepping for dinner. Tonight required a lot of potatoes, so Thatch decided it was as good a time as any to have some quality time with Mina. His niece… fuck it was so weird to consider everything he’d learned so far.

Before, he was too blinded by the strong resemblance to his sister—and to be fair he knew it and tried to keep his distance while sorting through his feelings. He knew better by now than to blame her for who she was related to. It was hard though. Hell, even her cocky laugh reminded him of his sister. The mental image of his niece standing strong with bandages wrapped around her stomach, eyes blazing as she challenged the hell spawn in that dungeon haunted him.

It was just… so different from the amicable, eager young girl he had seen up until that point. He thought that Mina was kind of weak, maybe with a secret bitchy side like his sister. But it was clear now that Mina and himself were cut from a very familiar cloth. Something stronger than steel ran in their spine that made a cornered fight turn into unique opportunity to overtake their enemy. Anything can be an advantage with a little creativity. And it was clear that Mina had been very creative her whole life with the ease that she handled a rapidly spiraling situation beyond her control.

Not quite comfortable leading people, clearly, but eager to share knowledge to gain an upper hand.

And now he was here. Sitting on a barrel opposite to his niece, both of them huddled over a growing pile of peeled potatoes. The sound of knives swiftly cutting apart the skin the only sound for a very long moment. Thatch just… wasn’t sure where to start.

What could he say?

“…So. Dungeons, huh?” Thatch grimaced at the piss poor start but kept going, “How long has that been going on? I know you said earlier they weren’t optional but when did they start?” Mina glanced up at him.

“I was ten, actually. Not sure if it was because of my birthday or because I reached a high enough level. It was a pretty tame dungeon though. Slime monsters, but they were just little goopy puddles. Cute but they tended to get bigger fast if I didn’t take them out quick enough. Almost drowned because I didn’t realize I could physically rip them apart and I didn’t have a weapon at the time.” Mina explained, smoothly running the potato in her hand in circles to form a seamless peel.

“Wow. That must have been pretty scary. How did… how did Victoria take it?” Thatch couldn’t help but ask. It sounded messy. And if nothing else, he just knew his sister would have loathed the mess.

“Victoria?” Mina paused, looking up at him for a moment until she realized who he was talking about. “Oh! Her. Uhm, she wasn’t there. I had been playing in my room at the time. No one saw me disappear and I cleaned up afterwards.”

Thatch frowned, hands still making the practiced motions to efficiently peel yet another damn potato.

“Kind of lucky then, I guess. Someone probably noticed when things got more serious though, right? I mean… back there… you were impaled Mina. Most people can’t just walk that off.” Mina snorted.

“Nope. No one noticed. I was pretty good at covering up for any… mistakes I made. And the worst anyone saw was bruises, but that could come from anything. Usually I just said I tripped over a rug. Gramps saw through it a little, I think. But he didn’t call me out on it.” Mina elaborated with a smile.

Thatch’s heart stuttered and he stopped. Knife poised over a potato.

“You could have died.” Thatch said, looking up at Mina as she stopped as well. She looked confused. “You were ten. You didn’t leave the island until you were fifteen. Five years you were dropped in random dungeons. And no one noticed?! Victoria never happened to see anything? Or her husband?! Were they all blind?!” Thatch knew he was growing a little hysterical, but it wouldn’t leave his mind.

A little ten-year-old girl, his fucking niece, having to plan around death matches in a house crawling with servants. And his sister was always a nosy bitch. There was no way in hell she missed even a misplaced hair on her only child!

“Well, the staff were a bit busy running the estate. I liked doing chores and helping, but if I disappeared for a few hours no one minded.” Mina looked confused as to why Thatch was growing more and more upset. Finally, something clicked. “Oh! Right. I’m really used to it by now, but that’s probably upsetting to hear. A little kid killing monsters in her free time without a choice. I’m… sorry?” Mina grimaced herself at the awkward trailing apology.

An apology. She was apologizing to Thatch.

Somehow, Thatch knew this was not going to be the most upsetting part.

“Did my sister really never notice you fighting for your life?! You were ten!” Thatch tossed the potato into the peeled pile, ignoring how little was left after he got a bit too hasty with his knife. Mina frowned, tilting her head in confusion. It was cute, but Thatch could already feel the horror dawning on him.

What the fuck did his sister do all those years?

“I don’t know how she could have noticed, Thatch. They weren’t even there?” Mina looked so earnest as she said that. Like there wasn’t something really fucked up with that sentence. Sure, plenty of kids grew up without parents. Technically, so did Thatch, but his parents were too invested in their business and politics to be emotionally present. They were at least mostly there as his sister and himself grew up.

“What?”

Mina looked down, selecting another potato with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Well, yeah. I don’t know when they left. I don’t actually remember them, so it must have been when I was really young.” Mina laughed, the sound a little too forced, “You know… I actually thought I was just like… an illegitimate child. Thought that the portrait of my parents was my grandparents because the painting was so old. It made sense at the time. Oh! Or that I was adopted. Possibly just a really lucky kid of the staff that… never wanted to acknowledge me. They were on trips all over ever since I could remember. I never talked to them. Not even once.”

Thatch put down the knife, afraid he would do something terrible if he held onto it.

“Mina…” Her shoulders were trembling despite how steady her hands were as they meticulously separated the potato skin with delicate curves of her knife.

“They showed up again for a week, isolating because they were sick and didn’t want it to spread to the staff I guess. My parents were home for a whole week and I didn’t even know they were my parents until the reading of the will. I stood there dressed in funeral clothes and so very confused. Gramps realized after the will reading that no one had actually told me who my parents were. I was just educated ‘as a young lady should be’ and that was that.” Thatch gently reached out and pulled away the knife. Tears dropping onto the blade and sinking onto the exposed potato, “T-They left when I was just a baby. I… I never got to know them. Never got a chance to. D-Did I… did I do something wrong? Is that why they left and never came back? Was it that obvious I wasn’t worth the trouble?”

Thatch crumbled as Mina finally looked up at him.

Her face was red, eyes bright with tears. She looked hopeful and resigned, like she thought she knew exactly what he’d say. Like she was afraid of what he might say. A weak sniffle jostled her whole body as she pressed her lips in a thin line. Mina was almost grown, but Thatch had no trouble lifting her into his lap and tucking her head under his chin.

“Oh Mina.” She sobbed, hands fisting the back of his shirt desperately as she clung to him. Thatch pressed a kiss to her temple and whispered into her hair, “I am so sorry, sweetie. I don’t know why my sister left, but you’ve always been worth it. You will always be worth it.” Thatch tucked his niece in closer to his chest and stroked her hair.

He had thought, having grown up in such a lonely household, that his sister would never repeat what their parents had done. It seems that she decided to top their neglect instead. It was harsh, but as his poor niece cried harder in his arms, he solemnly decided that the only good thing his sister did outside of giving birth was die and leave Thatch with custody.

Sure, he didn’t really know how to parent anyone, but fuck. There was no damn way he could fuck up harder than his sister did. And he had plenty of family here with him to help. Hell, Oyaji would know exactly what to do if nothing else! Thatch sighed and resigned himself to the strong possibility that they would be behind on the potatoes.

He sure as hell wasn’t going to tell his niece to suck it up just so his division wouldn’t have to peel any vegetables. They’d understand anyway. Despite wanting to follow his example in case things went south, Mina had clearly grown on them. Her eager (attention starved), willing to learn (desperate to please), and charming (a miracle in the midst of shitty parenting) personality winning them over. It was a wonder she wasn’t more fucked up—though a strong argument could be made for her reckless behavior. That did explain why she got along so well with Ace though... Actually, that was probably also a severe warning sign in it’s own right given Ace’s horrendous self-worth issues. But ‘gramps’, which was probably old Barty if he remembered the head butler well enough, could hardly be expected to pull a miracle out of his ass to make up for every deficit.

#one piece #one piece thatch #one piece oc #i designed several powered outfits for her and everything #it was a pretty fun project honestly #i really hyperficated on Mina for a while #sad boi hours tho #this is what i meant when I said i keep adding sad stuff to the backgrounds of my fics #like ow this genuinely hurt to come up with and write ngl

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rabbitcruiser · 2 years

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Star Wars Day

May the Fourth be with you. Fans of George Lucas’ iconic global phenomenon get to geek out extra hard on this pun-centric, nerd-friendly holiday.

May 4th has become commonly known as Star Wars Day, or National Star Wars Day. And who could be surprised? The words, “May the 4th” seem to beg for the rest of the catchphrase to be uttered.

Regardless of whether you prefer Star Wars or Star Trek, or if you are even a sci-fi aficionado at all, the influence of George Lucas’ Star Wars on pop culture is undeniable.

It seems that George Lucas had a knack of being able to connect with people in ways that others just could not, let’s face it, is there really a piece of work this man is responsible for that we cannot affix a quote to somewhere?

The truth is, Star Wars day represents more than just a quote in a film, the day itself is internationally recognized and is now as much a part of life as some of the most popular holidays you can name, we just have to ask ourselves why this is.

Well, if there is one thing we know for sure, it’s that it started out as a homage to something quite brilliant and, in its infancy, belonged only to the inner circles. As time went on, however, it reached more people and gained traction.

When we think of Star Wars day now, it’s not only a day, it’s something fun, and it’s also an in-joke that pretty much everybody on earth is a part of. While it may sound silly, something as incredibly simple as Star Wars Day has played a huge part in bringing people together no matter what background they are from.

The question of how this happened is all in the history, and the history of Star Wars Day is something that we are going to explore a little now.

The History of Star Wars Day

Star Wars, an epic space opera written and directed by George Lucas, premiered in 1977 and became an almost instant cult classic. Even today, almost 40 years later, Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time.

The franchise it began remains the most successful one of all time, earning over 2.5 billion dollars since the release of the first film. However, the money it’s earned over the years is hardly the most impressive aspect of Star Wars.

As famous film critic Roger Ebert put it: “Like The Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane, Star Wars was a technical watershed that influenced many of the movies that came after.”

Star Wars was a real game-changer, beginning a new era of special effect-packed motion pictures bursting with excitement, adventure, and imagination that appealed enormously to younger audiences as well as older ones.

Many of today’s most acclaimed film directors, such as Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan and James Cameron, cite Star Wars as a great influence on their careers.

Star Wars has also had an enormous cultural impact on other areas besides filmmaking, including politics–the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Program was mockingly nicknamed “Star Wars.”

As recently as 2013, President Barack Obama used the phrase “Jedi mind meld” to describe what some people were expecting him to do in his opposition to make them accept his ideas.

“May the Fourth be with you” was first used by Margaret Thatcher’s political party to congratulate her on her election on May 4th, 1979, and the saying quickly caught on.

However, the first celebration of May 4th took place much later, at the Toronto Underground Cinema in 2001. This first official Star Wars Day’s festivities included a costume contest and a movie marathon. Fans’ favorite parodies of the franchise were also enjoyed, as were some of the most popular mash-ups and remixes.

While for some people, there may have been a fleeting thought that Star Wars Day was nothing but a fad that would die out, regardless of the fact the films never did, in swoop Disney, and they restarted the whole thing off and took it to a whole new level.

In 2015, Star Wars saw a new saga come and with all the charm, class and lens flares that Disney could throw at it, and wow did it reignite a fire in Star Wars fans, and we know that lighting that fire again was tough after what JarJar Binks did to it.

Of course, the fire restarted with the Force Awakens, and the new saga promised to deliver fans everything they wanted from a 21st century Star Wars sage. Surprisingly, this time around, Disney really delivered and did what they did best, they took a franchise and made it incredible again.

With Disney behind it and a few familiar faces returning, Star Wars Day was soon to become something even more special to a whole new demographic. Now, a whole new set of parents have to explain why even though it’s set a long, long time ago, things are way more advanced than they are now.

It seems that over the last five years, Star Wars has reached millions of new soon to be Jedi warriors, and if we know anything about Disney, we know they are going to make sure that this franchise is never left to rest again.

Since its revamp, National Star Wars Day has gained so much more popularity and is celebrated by Star Wars fans worldwide, and before long, we expect Disney to declare May 4th to be a national holiday.

Star Wars Day Timeline

1976 First Star Wars book is released

Although technically published before the release of the film in 1977, the book is actually written by George Lucas after he has already written the Star Wars screenplay.

1977 First Star Wars film is released

The first in a trilogy, Star Wars: A New Hope, is well-received by critics for the most part and grosses over $550 million at the box office on its first run.

2008 Luke Skywalker Day groups appear

Perhaps considered the predecessor to Star Wars Day, groups on Facebook start popping up using the catchphrase “May the Fourth be with you”.

2011 First Star Wars Day is celebrated

The first celebration of Star Wars Day in an organized fashion takes place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on May 4 of this year. It includes film screenings, costume contests, parodies and more.

2015 Star Wars is watched in space

In celebration of Star Wars Day, the crew on the International Space Station watch the films.

How to celebrate Star Wars Day

The way you celebrate Star Wars day will depend on how well you know this cultural phenomenon. If you are a longtime fan of the franchise, you might want to get a group of friends together and attend one of the many Star Wars events organized in different parts of the world.

Such events range from costume contests to museum exhibits to tours of space centers. And if you’re not feeling up to going out, there’s no reason why a Star Wars Day party organized by you at home should be any less fun.

Movie marathons with friends, Star Wars trivia games, and even Star Wars themed snacks (Death Star piñata, anyone?) will guarantee this day is full of fun as well as being very educational.

“Vadering” another person has also become an extremely popular thing to do on this day, and the photos you take of this are sure to bring a smile to your face for years to come.

Because Star Wars itself is such an enormous topic, the ways of celebrating the day dedicated to it are virtually endless. So choose one, have fun, and May the 4th be with you!

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forested--vampire · 1 year

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Hey so I deleting the 'mourning doves' writing piece. Why? Three reasons

I didn't do any research and after having to i realized that I didn't write shock or bloodloss well, plus added a few specific injuries and such. And the treatment of such wasn't exactly right. I added more deepth to the processor Mark and Brian use so- I'm just very picky and like to be neat so I'm doing this for my own likimg

Jonah dkwsnt act like Jonah. Atleast to me. Especially after a traumatic event like that he cant just typically continue like that. I plan on Jonah and Mark getting together well, and I felt bad hurting their feelings(???) I want them to go well with each-other but it's going to be a bumpy road before that because Jonah would be irritable as fuck, plus, he wouldn't want to speak much since he kinda just got tortured technically so-

I don't think Jonah would've forgiven Adam THAT fast, or atleast be so clear on such. Jonah us the kinda guy to push it all down until he needs to confront it and typically that really bad lol.

I have many other characters and stories I have yet to touch on and am only brushing the ideas and statying to make many ideas for this AU, expect changes in designs, stories, and universe from here. I am doing my hardest to keep all writings I make canon to the AU no matter what i add, and not touching parts that I know will change.

Long post, sorry!! Feel free to ask questions, I love to ramble. I may post designs soon <3

Ps; here's a Confinscated Thatcher doodle for you!! I love him

#Roulette blogs #Updates

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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Facebook vs Robert Bork

Unless you're a certain kind of conservative, you probably haven't heard of Robert Bork, but he's one of the most important people you've never heard of. The best way to understand Bork is that he was Ronald Reagan's court sorcerer.

Reagan was an empty vessel with the hands of ruthless plutocrats shoved up his asshole*, operating him like a hand puppet for their collective will to power.

He served as a kind of dowsing rod for policies that would transfer wealth from the 99% to the 1%.

*Hence the polyps

That dowsing rod pointed straight at Bork. Bork was an alternate history writer, a fabulist with a unique and wildly improbable theory of antitrust statutes: that if you studied the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act with Qanon-style fervor, you'd find hidden messages in them.

Specifically, you would discover that the lawmakers who drafted, debated, amended and passed these laws thought monopolies were good, actually. They were only concerned with a small and possibly mythical minority of monopolies that were "harmful."

Not just any harms: Bork said that these ancient sages were worried about *consumer* harms, which, practically speaking, means monopolies that use their power to raise prices. This, he said, was the only thing that the government should step in to prevent.

Since it is nearly impossible to prove that a given merger or tactic would result in higher prices before the fact, and *also* it's nearly impossible to prove that a price rise after the fact was attributable to monopolism we should probably just forget about antitrust.

Reagan loved this. By shifting antitrust's focus from *democratic* harms (like reducing choice, distorting regulation, hurting workers, etc) to *consumer* harms, he could demote "citizens" (who have a role in shaping policies) to "consumers" - mere ambulatory wallets.

Reagan tried to get Bork a seat on the Supreme Court, but there was a little problem. Bork had committed a string of disgusting crimes while serving as Nixon's Solicitor General, and the Senate refused to confirm him for a seat.

(Conservatives were outraged that committing crimes at the highest level of government disqualified you from the Supreme Court and coined the term "Borked" to describe rich, powerful people who had to face the unfair prospect of being held accountable for their actions)

But Bork - along with the Chicago School economists - went on to completely revolutionize the world's conception of anti-monopoly enforcement, as neoliberal leaders all over the world (Thatcher, Mulroney, Pinochet, Kohl, etc) took up his theories and tuned them into policy.

Bork was a fringe figure, but he was preaching a gospel that stood to make the richest people on Earth *so much richer*, and they bankrolled the hell out of his theories.

For example, 40% of US federal judges have attended "continuing education" seminars at an annual lush Florida junket where they are initiated into the bizarre world of "consumer harm" theory.

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/10/18/law-and-economics/

40 years later, monopolism has surged in every industry, from bottlecaps to pharma, from poultry to pro wrestling, from eyeglasses to emergency rooms, from oil to car parts, from music to publishing to movies to online services to telecoms.

All driven by mergers, all resulting in higher prices (so much for "consumer harm") all wildly distorting of public policy (the decision to let Boeing self-certify the 737 Max is repeated in thousands of ways across hundreds of industries), all brutal news for workers.

It's a disaster, but it's one that we have been powerless to avert or address for so long as "consumer harm" ruled antitrust enforcement.

Finally, that's changing.

In 2019, Dina Srinivasan published a landmark paper: "The Antitrust Case Against Facebook," which made *incredibly* clever arguments showing that FB's democratic harms were also consumer harms, meaning FB could be sued without first undoing Borkism.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362

But the magic of this work was in revealing the poverty of the consumer harm standard: she laid out the innumerable ways in which FB is bad for society and showed how a sliver of these harms were technically illegal, raising the question: why isn't *all* this stuff illegal?

Today, Facebook was hit with *two* antitrust suits, one from the FTC and the other from almost every US state (including California!).

The complaints say that FB's acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp were anticompetitive.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/9/22158483/facebook-antitrust-lawsuit-anti-competition-behavior-attorneys-general

Of course, they *were* anticompetitive. We know, because Zuck - who specializes in tripping over his own dick - sent out memos extolling the acquisitions' anticompetitive advantages, proving he hasn't learned a thing since he traded incriminating IMs about founding FB.

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a19490586/mark-zuckerberg-called-people-who-handed-over-their-data-dumb-f/

The complaints build on Srinivasan's work and they carry the same flavor: claiming "consumer harms" in the acquisitions, but winking and nodding toward a broader, more democracy-focused (and less consumer-focused) critique of monopoly.

It's a weird tightrope act: they want to win, so their argument is designed to balance on the single, fragile hair that borkism stretches across the chasm of monopoly enforcement, but they wanna make sure we see that big sturdy bridge of nonbork antitrust right there.

If there was any doubt, it was erased by the remedies demanded in the complaints. The prosecutors aren't asking for money damages - a fine is a price, after all - instead, they want FB to sell off the companies it bought for illegal purposes.

And they want FB to get regulatory approval for future acquisitions (though the states will let it buy companies for less than $10m without approval). These are not "consumer harm" remedies - they're "democracy" remedies, aimed at removing the company's source of power.

Facebook has stood up a website explaining why it's a cuddly mom-and-pop business that's being bullied by mean government meanies:

https://about.fb.com/building-to-compete/

The argument's pretty similar to the one laid out in a leaked memo in October:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#dnr

Basically: it would be really hard for us to unwind these illegal, anticompetitive mergers. Seriously, it would cost a bundle and take so much work!

This is an unserious argument, and it shows how badly FB has misgauged the mood.

All of FB's arguments are garbage, really. Take the line that ex-British-Deputy-PM-turned-FB-salesdroid Nick Clegg has been peddling: "STOP TRYING TO BREAK UP FACEBOOK OR THE CHINESE WILL WIN!"

https://www.cnet.com/news/facebooks-nick-clegiden-must-unite-global-powers-to-shape-internet-amid-china-threat

The company's best arguments are about "market definition" - to claim that they don't have a monopoly because of all the competitors they face, provided you define FB's market broadly enough.

Like, "Here at Facebook, we are in the 'using computers' business. Now, just think of how much time you spend using a computer without interacting with FB! Your car has a computer and it's not on FB! How can you say we have a monopoly?!"

If you want to see someone making this argument as well as it can possibly be made and literally getting laughed at by a University of Chicago (!) audience, check out this debate from 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_Jp-GJ9LM0

Forcing FB to divest itself of Whatsapp and Instagram is a no-brainer. The company lied to secure those mergers, broke the promises it made to get permission to make them, and the penalty for that should be unwinding those mergers.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/dont-believe-proven-liars-absolute-minimum-standard-prudence-merger-scrutiny

And if FB fights this for a decade the way IBM fought its antitrust action, fine - IBM outspent the entire DoJ antitrust division every year for 12 years (Bork called it "antitrust's Vietnam"), but even though Big Blue wasn't broken up, they had their spirit broken.

It was fear of another tangle with antitrust regulators that caused IBM to sit idly by while Phoenix cloned the PC ROMs and created the PC clone industry, which became the US computing industry.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/ibm-pc-compatible-how-adversarial-interoperability-saved-pcs-monopolization

And it was the same fear that caused IBM to hire an outside company to make the OS for its PCs, getting a couple of nerds named Paul Allen and Bill Gates to supply one for them.

IBM's 12 years of antitrust hell focused the attention of every tech giant of the age, letting them know what was on their horizon if they acted like IBM had. It created the US tech industry.

Today, VCs call the businesses that Big Tech dominates "the kill zones" because they know that monopolists have the market power to destroy any startup that tries to compete with them.

There is an entire - better, more pluralistic - tech industry that's been suppressed by Big Tech. If FB and Goog and Apple and the other tech giants spend the next decades throwing billions at the FTC and the states attorneys general, it will be money well-spent.

Because it will be money that these companies don't get to spend destroying the next wave of tech companies, co-ops, and platforms.

#pluralistic

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bangtanloverboys · 2 years

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I posted 18,773 times in 2021

731 posts created (4%)

18042 posts reblogged (96%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 24.7 posts.

I added 1,307 tags in 2021

#dip rambles - 566 posts

#dip answers - 166 posts

#bts x reader - 132 posts

#dip friends - 118 posts

#icymi - 72 posts

#btsghostie - 59 posts

#jungkook x reader - 56 posts

#yoongi x reader - 49 posts

#wip update - 48 posts

#yoonkook x reader - 41 posts

My Top Posts in 2021

strawberries & cigarettes // kth

summary - being dragged out to some party on a saturday night wasn’t exactly your usual plans, but meeting a cute boy may or may not make it all better

pairing - bad boy!taehyung x nerd male!reader

genre - fluff; strangers to lovers au

word count - 3.7k

warnings - innacurate frat party, police showing up, references to smoking, kissing, gays moving at weird paces bc what do you expect they’re gay

author’s note - another gay fic for pride month hehehe, happy pride month yall!

See the full post

251 notes • Posted 2021-06-19 01:31:32 GMT

something sick & twisted (ii) // jjk

summary - it’s strange how one thoughtless decision could hold so much consequence. as now you’ve found yourself in bed with the man behind your corruption. trapped, you’re left unsure if you’re free of his influence or not. you want to believe he’s still behind it all, but you don’t know anymore

pairing - demon!jungkook x church boy!reader

genre - suspense, smut, angst

word count - 10.3k

warnings - kinda kidnapping?, technical discussion about the selling of a soul, demons care about consent, internalized homophobia, catholic guilt, smut reading, non descriptive dick sword play, reader goes through the stages of grief but not in order, masturbation, shame, voyeurism, degradation, name calling, orgasm control, ruined orgasms, sacreligious kink (oops), corruption kink, choking, face fucking, possessiveness, spanking, cum eating, spit as lube, explicit praying during sex (im sorry), dom!jungkook, sub!reader, top!jungkook, bottom!reader, gay sex, unprotected sex, crying during sex, dacryphilia, hospitals, doctors, police, homphobic parents, bisexual!childhood friend!yoongi, coming out, use of the word faggot, being disowned

author’s note - again, if you’re religious, i highly recommend not reading this. but thank you all for enjoying gay demon jk!! shout out to @crazy4myself for being the beta for this (ily)

tagged: @tipsydipsydo @anime-meme-sanctuary

part i

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349 notes • Posted 2021-08-18 22:11:59 GMT

groovy baby // jjk

summary - jeongguk powers, internatinal man of mystery, is here to save the day. but you sure as hell ain't having it with him

pairing - jungkook x female!reader

genre - crack/humor, smut; austin powers au

word count - 7.9k

warnings - crack that is literally taken seriously, absolute insanity, some 1960s lingo, austin powers references, jungkook being a cheeky bastard, flirty jungkook, swedish made penis milker that definitely doesn’t belong to jungkook, yoongi has one eye, gambling, bald kim seokjin, there is a plot that ends with porn, dom/sub dymanics, margret thatcher mention, sub!jk, dom!reader, whiny jungkook, edging, hand job, unprotected sex

author’s note - happy birthday to my dearest friend @jeonstudios behold the thing you have been fearing waiting for since i proposed the idea. it took me a year to do it, but it’s finally here. you’re welcome. hope you enjoy (also this wont make a lick of sense, it’s pure crack, nothing else)

See the full post

393 notes • Posted 2021-11-29 00:22:13 GMT

deep waters masterlist // myg & jjk

summary - legends of mermaids and other mythical sea creatures were always just that to you: legends and myths. but your entire world view shifts when your boyfriend claims he saw one for himself

pairing - marine biologist!yoongi x female!reader x siren!jeongguk

genre - sci-fi, drama, fluff, eventual smut; siren au

author’s note - this was inspired by freeform’s siren (damn another cancelled show). but this has been in my head for well over a year so i decided to finally write it!!

See the full post

397 notes • Posted 2021-08-30 23:11:50 GMT

something sick & twisted (i) // jjk

summary - all your life you considered yourself to be a good kid. you got good grades, went to church every sunday, didn’t go to any parties. you did anything you could to keep yourself on the path to heaven, even if it meant hiding some of the darkest parts of you to yourself. that was how you lived until one day, your no-good roommates decided to take you up to an abandoned cabin in the woods, where you begin to feel yourself corrupt from the inside out

pairing - demon!jungkook x church boy!reader

genre - suspense, smut

word count - 11.4k

warnings - internalized homophobia, catholic guilt, reader is a bit of a straight edge, kinda incubus!jungkook but also not really?, toxic friendships, drugs use (marijuana), driving while intoxicated/high, head injury, hospitals, kinda unconsensual touching?, clubbing, alcohol consumption, kitty gang!jimin shows up, sex dream, blowjob, paranoia, sleep deprivation, (former) youth group leader!namjoon, homophobic parents, masturbation, shame, lot’s of conflicted feelings, voyeurism, some degradation, slight man handling, name calling, spit as lube/improper prep (please don’t do that), loss of virginity, dom!jungkook, sub!reader, top!jungkook, bottom!reader, gay sex, unprotected sex (also don’t do that), non-explicitng praying during sex (um), crying during sex, kinda dacryphilia, marking, accidental selling of the soul

author’s note - the infamous gay demon jungkook is here. . . and here’s here to fuck shit up. i would like to note that if you are religious, i do not recommend reading this. @tipsydipsydo since you asked to be tagged. . . hope you enjoy also big shout out to @crazy4myself for being my beta for this ily

part ii

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564 notes • Posted 2021-06-13 17:01:13 GMT

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#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #GAY DEMON JK REIGNS SUPREME

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martinmotherfckingfreeman · 4 years

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oh this fucking bullshit again

“I DON’T KNOW BUT” let me air my bullshit, uninformed and unsupported opinions again.

let’s start with the racist part first.

1. BETWEEN BC AND MF, ONE OF THEM ACTED IN A MARVEL MOVIE WITH A BLACK DIRECTOR, AND MAJORITY BLACK CAST AND CREW, THE OTHER ONE ACTED IN A MARVEL MOVIE WITH A WHITEWASHED MAJOR SUPPORTING ROLE. CAN YOU GUESS WHO ACTED IN WHICH? Hint: Not the one you stan, 177ABleeckerSt.

2. I guess all these people must be stupid then hanging out with a racist asshole who secretly hates them. Except for yellow hat lady the rest aren’t even people who worked on black panther with him.

3. During the black panther press tour, Daniel Kaluuya and Winston Duke were asked “what was the blackest thing they did off set”. Their answer: “Martin Freeman on the drums.” In another interview, the same two guys again say “Martin Freeman is a G”, “He’s gone native. Ask for his password”, then agreed with the interviewer’s statement that Ryan Coogler had only directed one white guy (Andy Serkis) in the movie and not two.

4. THIS interview with Danai Gurira. I guess for a “racist” he didn’t do a very good job of raising his son to think like him. (gif source, video source)

5. In his own words “Two-tone and Catholicism were my twin religions” What is two-tone? “Two-tone or 2 tone is a genre of British popular music of the early 1980s that fused traditional Jamaican ska music with elements of punk rock and new wave music.” often represented by:

Its name derives from 2 Tone Records, a record label founded in 1979 by Jerry Dammers of The Specials, and references a desire to transcend and defuse racial tensions in Thatcher-era Britain; many two-tone groups, such as The Specials, The Selecter, and The Beat featured a mix of black, white, and multiracial people.

6. Says he spent his teenage years “finding fault with everybody and accusing every single person of constantly being a racist homophobe.” OH THE FUCKING IRONY.

7. THIS BLOG POST covers this topic and a bit more.

“So saying a word to point out that you don’t like to hear it and there was a time when people knew that it was an inappropriate word to call people; that’s not racist. If anything it’s the opposite of racist. What he’s saying is, “as a white man, I find this word to be inappropriate, and yet there it is.” He probably shouldn’t have called it “gangsta rap” and using the word was inappropriate, but that’s all it was. Inappropriate, not racist... This is primarily because it’s white people saying these things about him while ignoring actual PoC who are telling them that what he’s saying is not technically racist. It would be one thing if he were saying that word to someone, or was saying that that word was okay to say. He’s doing the opposite and saying that he finds it annoying that it’s there.”

so anyways moving on.

8. I guess Sir Ian Mckellen doesn’t know how to judge a person’s character since he considers Martin a friend. Or MF is such a great actor and pretender that he can fool him. Look at that little homophobic bastard SNUGGLING up to a gay man who’s been out since the fucking 80s.

9. On one of the Hobbit red carpets, Stephen Fry tickles his neck when passing, Martin just turns around to blow him a kiss. Thought a homophobe would have been more likely to throw a punch instead but what would I fucking know right?

10. Let’s all look at him being phobic with Mark Gay-tease(???)

11. Again another infamous MF quote. “We’re all are a bit (bi) aren’t we... Don’t give me labels.” Among whole other bunch of “Proof that Martin is Bi” posts which I honestly can’t even be bothered to search and link.

12. Has NEVER ONCE cringed or criticized or complained despite being shown very graphic and very gay fanart on talk shows NUMEROUS times. Has also been sent/given physical copies of fanart, has admitted to looking it up himself online, and has also shown said fanart to Benadryl Cumberpants. HE LITERALLY DOES NOT MIND THE GAY.

I’m sure some geniuses might bitch about these not proving anything. Yeah sure, fine, don’t believe me, what the fuck do I know JUST I’m a biased fan anyway. It’s still a fuck load more evidence than people bother to bring up while they’re slandering him.

#martin freeman #ranty rant #fucking idiots on the internet #this post def won't show up on the search tags because i have too many external links #so i guess if you want anyone else to see it you have to rb #dumberbitch

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thealmightyemprex · 3 years

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Top 10 Villains of Fantasy Month

Yeah Fantasy month is long since over,but I still wanted to rank my favorite dasterdly villains I encountered that month

10.Tylette from the Blue Bird(1940)

Yeah I sort of HATE this movie,and I would be lying if I said I ddint find the implications of Tylette kind of troubling.That said Gale Sondergaard delivers a great performance ,really capturing the feline qualities of the character and I found it interesting the villain was a member of the heroic questing party

9.Pendragon from Jack the Giant Killer (1962)

Ruler of a kingdom of witches ,Pendragon is your standard evil sorcerer but thats kind of why I like him.Torin Thatcher's performance is why he is on the list.

8.Baba Yaga from Vasilisa the Beautiful (1940)

While the main villain is technically Gornych the multi headed dragon, Baba Yaga is the films heavy ,a witch who wants the titular heroin to marry a giant man eating dragon .I love Georgey Millyar's physical acting , he really gives his all for this part

7.Rothbart from the Swan Princess (1994)

A evil wizard with the gravelly voice of Jack Palance who has killed the king and turned Odette into a swan unless she marries him .Fun,menacing and with a terrifying monster form

6.The Stepmother from the Slipper and the Rose (1976)

Probabbly my favorite version of Cinderellas Stepmother.She's not a big focus of the story ,but Margaret Lockwood just nails this part .

5.Lucifer from the Wonderful World of Puss N Boots (!969)

Personification of "I'm such a nice guy" ,this ogre sorcerer seeks to wed the princess .He starts off rather comedic but the more he is rejected the more his true colors show ,and the meaner ,nastier and more villainous sides to his personality show

4.The Witch from Viy (1967)

Next time I hear people say there arent many great female horror movie villains ,I want them to watch Viy .Shes a simple villain(An undead witch tormenting a seminary student ) but maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan is she scary

3.The Evil Queen from Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961)

Might be the most villainous version of the evil queen ,locking up Snow White,trying to have the Prince assainated as a child ,trying to assasinate Snow White ,then trying to kill Snow White out of pettyness .I just love the way Patricia Medina plays her,in both the queen form and as the witch. Shoutout to Mr Sardonicus himself Guy Rolfe as her equally vile right hand man Count Oga

2.Kaschey from Kaschey the Immortal(1944)

So despite being the title character,Kashey is barely in the film ......But he steals it when on screen.Again played by Georgey Millyar ,desopite his himmortality ,power and wealth ,hes basically just a creepy old guy seeking to wed the leading lady Maria.Also ,this might have just been a trnslational error,but my favorite thing about hm is according to the subtitles is he has a very informal way of speaking in contrast to the gravitas he projects ,reminded me of Disneys Hades or Richard Boones Smaug

1.The Black Queen from Fantaghiro 2 (1992)

Where.Do.I .Start !????The Black Queen is an evil witch who hates anything good or nice,to the point that insults are compliments ,and seeks to DESTROY the relationship between heroine Fantaghiro and Romualdo because of how pure their love is .Brigette Nielsen is so wonderfully hamtastic in this part ,she might be one of my absolute favorite fantasy villains

@ariel-seagull-wings @amalthea9 @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @filmcityworld1 @sunlit-music @marquisedemasque @princesssarisa @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark

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henriiiii-1001old · 11 months

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Actually I'm gonna send another au ask (I hope u don't mind XD) I kinda wanna know whats up with "Spider Puppet" (the design rules so much) and also any other fun facts you have about AltThatcher/Puppet from Unholy Gift?

NO I DONT MIND AT ALL

ALSO H E L L Y E A H SPIDER PUPPET!!!!!!

his name is technically "the puppeteer" because haha symbolism CFVGBHN

so fun fact about puppet, he was made to not be able to have any sort of weird flaws other than his pure form. however, overtime puppet just got like. reeeaaally pissed at gabriel because half the time he's not even in full control of himself. he is literally a puppet to gabriel.

so he just bottled up a lot of anger, and his spider form didn't truly emerge until ruth escaped. so he was just extra pissed at that point. so pissed to the point he grew his hair slightly longer and formed 4 extra arms and 6 more eyes. anger issues paired with technical daddy issues can do a lot to a man SDCFVGBH

but he can use his extra limbs to climb walls and shit so that's cool. and fucking freaky. LIKE. F R E A K Y. ESPECIALLY SINCE HE LOOKS LIKE A VERY FUCKED UP THATCHER WHILE DOING IT.

and oooooo fun facts!!!! :DDDDD

was made by gabriel to be a sort of "perfect alternate". he would have no flaws when mocking a person's appearance, making him the least detectable and would only be able to further gabriel's plans. this however backfired when he realized that puppet couldn't actually mock personalities and for the fact that puppet eventually tried overthrowing him. whoops.

is associated with the color pink!!! specifically a dark pink to contrast thatcher's lighter green color. also to be complimentary to ruth's yellow while still contrasting by being assigned a darker color.

was actually the alternate that made cesar kill himself. and since cesar's conversion to becoming an alternate, they have been literally best friends. cesar takes a lot of his personality from puppet.

was ALSO one of the alternates that played a part in mark's death. he was the one shot by mark too. the technical real cesar was there too, but he just did the voice stuff as well as the phone call to lure mark to the torres house.

this is probably gonna be taken out of context by proshippers so listen to me VERY CLOSELY. he THOUGHT that he had a crush on ruth for a while. i just think this is a funny concept so it's here. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS ME TRYING TO SHIP!!!!! they would be in an EXTREMELY ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP IF THAT WERE THE CASE, in which they technically ALREADY ARE due to puppet literally mentally, emotionally, and physically tormenting ruth by keeping her in her own home without any means of escape without some sort of very cruel punishment. PLEASE PLEASE do not take this the wrong way.

continuing from the last one since i hopefully set that straight: puppet probably went to six all like "BRO IM IN LOVE HELP WHAT DO I DO" and six is just like "um. idk man you're not supposed to feel that stuff. and i haven't felt love since i became an alternate lmao gl w that". he does eventually realize it was only a weird side feeling of being obsessed with becoming thatcher, so he was probably just like "i must be besties with her or else i am not thatcher, but i am him so i'll be fine" and he just completely misread his own feelings. mostly because he's not supposed to have them but yeah :/

kinda hates tiffany. they only hang out with each other bc they cannot tolerate any of the other alternates other than cesar and adam. so they kinda just deal with it LMAO

his hair is kinda supposed to look like horns!!! like lil devil horns :DDDDD yes i took that straight from my old william design shut up CFVGBHNJ

uuhhh yeah that's kinda it for now! i hope you enjoy as another alt thatcher fan :3c

#mandela catalogue #the mandela catalogue #puppet/goliath #vol 333 alternate #evidence reel #tmc unholy gift #abuse mention #thank you for letting me talk abt this man i am so insane over him <33333 #a2t #station interviews

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thecrownnet · 3 years

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The Crown Is One Of The Hardest Shows To Cast. Here’s How They Do It.

Casting announcements for The Crown are almost as exciting as the premiere of a new season itself. Half the fun of the show is analyzing the actors set to portray famous figures like Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, as well as who will next fill the storied shoes of Queen Elizabeth. Season 4 of Peter Morgan’s royal drama was cast by Robert Sterne, who' won several Emmys for his work on the series along with Nina Gold (the duo cast seasons 1 through 3 together, and they were also responsible for the influx of talent we saw on Game of Thrones). Unsurprisingly, casting The Crown poses specific challenges not experienced on any other show.

“It’s not only that you’ve got to find actors who can successfully embody real-life, well-known people, but you’ve got to make sure there’s a continuity as it’s passed from the younger to the older version of the actor,” Sterne tells ELLE.com. “Who’s done it before, who’s doing it after, and who are the real people?”Sterne, who's currently in the process of re-casting the entire series for seasons 5 and 6, adds, “It’s nerve-wracking because people invest in the original people. You do X hours of screen time with them and fall in love with their interpretation, and then you go again [and re-cast] every two years.

”The casting process for each season starts about a year before filming begins; a meeting with Morgan clarifies where the characters will be in their journeys the following season. There were 262 speaking characters in season 4, and Sterne personally worked on all of them. The casting director notes that “you’ve got to think ahead of the game,” and that there are several factors to consider—not just whether the actor looks like the real-life person.

“They’ve got to have some credibility, physically, to be the people they’re supposed to portray,” Sterne notes. “But at the same time, they’ve got to get the spirit of it right.” Below, Sterne breaks down the behind-the-scenes process of building the cast of The Crown.

Perfecting Princess Diana

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

“Diana was a big deal,” Sterne says, confirming the role has been The Crown’s biggest casting challenge to date. “It was clear as we were heading into the 1980s that she was going to be a major part of it. And we’re starting with Diana at the beginning of her life—we’re not trying to find the icon of the Mario Testino images.”

The casting team embarked on an international search for the person who would play Diana, looking at hundreds of possible actresses in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. They weren’t just auditioning professional actors, either. “It was completely open,” Sterne notes. “We were going into schools in the home countries to see if there was anybody who might be good, since we meet her at 16, as well as looking at people who'd done a lot more work.”

The massive search brought them back to Emma Corrin, whom Sterne had seen in the casting process for season 3. The tense lunch between Camilla Parker-Bowles (Emerald Fennell) and Diana in the third episode of season 4 was used as the audition scene for Camilla—and Corrin came in as a reader to stand in for the part of Diana.

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“I usually read in all these meetings, but we decided because it was this major scene that we would get somebody to come in [for Diana],” Sterne explains. “We asked Emma to come in, not thinking about casting Diana at this point. But as she was reading with these Camillas, all the directors and the showrunner were looking more at her and not at the people playing Camilla—who will remain nameless, of course. When we got to thinking about Diana a year later, there she was in my notes.”

Bringing in Margaret Thatcher

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

Sterne was told early on that the big focus for season 4 would be the three main women: the queen, Diana, and Margaret Thatcher. Casting Thatcher, who has been portrayed repeatedly onscreen in the past, was unusual, because actress Gillian Anderson is Morgan’s partner, and the creator himself approached her about the role.

“There was always a list of one,” Sterne says. “We had thought of ideas and talked it through a lot, but we always knew Gillian Anderson was totally amazing. It seemed like a fresh and interesting way of going. We were very lucky she said she’d do it—she’s such a clever character actress.”

While Anderson is a fairly big name, Sterne and Gold aren’t always looking for an A-list star to be part of The Crown. Having someone like Anderson come in is balanced by casting lesser-known actors like Corrin.

“One of the great joys of working on it—and working with Peter Morgan on it—is that we’re open, and it’s a really genuine opportunity to find the best person for the part,” Sterne says. “We get to find the actor we believe has the best skills and the best instinctive connection with the part, rather than feeling like we’ve got to provide big names all the time.”

Carrying Charles Through

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

“He’s so three-dimensional,” Sterne explains of the role of Prince Charles. “There are so many aspects to that character. He would have to go on a journey.” It was important that the actor could evolve over a two-decade period, playing both a young version and the one who closes out season 4.

Josh O’Connor's work in Francis Lee’s 2017 film God’s Own Country led Sterne to cast him as Prince Charles. “He totally inhabited the role in God’s Own Country in this beautiful performance that’s very different from who he is. We thought, ‘Gosh, if that guy can do that and run with a character who’s so different than himself, then that will be interesting to see.’ As soon as we started [working with] him, it became pretty clear it was Josh.”

O’Connor has the obvious physical similarity to Charles, particularly in the ears, but Sterne really wanted someone who could make the role their own and not just mimic a famous figure—something especially important to season 4’s arc.

“It’s really important that you’re not getting an impersonation,” Sterne notes. “They have to embody them. We have an amazing team who help with the voice work and the movement work—those technical aspects—but you want somebody who has the skill to take on all that technically, and then leave it all behind. Josh flew with that from the moment he came into the room.”

Finding Young William and Harry

Photo: Des Willie/Netflix

Princes William and Harry make their debut in season 4 as young children, and the resemblance to the real royals is almost uncanny. A baby version of William shows up in episode 6 as Charles and Diana tour Australia and New Zealand in 1982, while Harry appears later in the season. Unlike with the older royals, Sterne focuses on physical appearance alone when casting the kids.

“They have to be as recognizable as possible,” he explains. “They don’t have the opportunity to say many lines, so it’s all visual. You want people to have the pleasure of going, ‘Ah, there they are!’”

Sterne says the difficulty in casting children can vary depending on the situation. The search involves looking through schools in the U.K. and visiting drama groups for kids. “You have to keep going until you find people who feel credible,” Sterne says.

Casting One-Off Characters and Extras

While the fourth season of The Crown focuses a lot on Charles and Diana's relationship and Thatcher’s rapport with the queen, several standalone episodes bring in one-off characters who are equally important to the narrative.

Episode 7, “The Hereditary Principle,” sees Princess Margaret learning that the royal family’s estranged cousins have been locked in a mental institution. The women, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, were first cousins to Elizabeth II on her mother’s side and both had severe learning disabilities. Sterne and Gold cast Trudie Emery as Katherine and Pauline Hendrickson as Nerissa. Both actresses have learning disabilities in real life.

Trudie Emery as Katherine Bowes-Lyon and Pauline Hendrickson as Nerissa Bowes-Lyon in The Crown season 4 episode 7, "The Hereditary Principle".

NETFLIX

“We had a few pictures of those two women and did a lot of research into their lives and experiences, and then did a national search across drama schools and residential care homes to find people with learning disabilities who looked similar to the real women and were interested in acting,” Sterne says. “We employed a lot of the people with learning disabilities we met along the way and put them in small parts in those scenes with Trudie and Pauline. We wanted to find real people with learning disabilities so they were properly represented. There are not as many opportunities as you’d hope for, and when we started looking around, there were so many drama groups. There’s so much talent out there.”

Similarly, in episode 5, Tom Brooke plays real-life British man Michael Fagan, who broke into Buckingham Palace to see the queen—a key moment in understanding the state of England in the 1980s.

Tom Brooke as Michael Fagan in The Crown season 4 episode 5, "Fagan". NETFLIX

“We knew there was going to be an episode about him,” Sterne says, “and I remember reading stories about him and there were loads of pictures of him. For a character like that, you look at footage of him and read about him. It’s a really extraordinary part to play, so you want to find an accomplished, technically brilliant actor who looks a bit like him. Tom is an actor with a whole lot of soul, and you wanted [Fagan] to have a whole lot of soul.”

Sterne adds, “Fagan's story was a way of exploring Thatcher’s Britain that's not automatically going to be covered if you’re just dealing with the royal family and the prime ministers, which is the usual core of The Crown.”

#emma corrin #josh o'connor #gillian anderson #tom brooke #the crown

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